Keating to visit Malaysia

Keating to visit Malaysia

CANBERRA (Reuter): Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating yesterday said he would make his first visit to Malaysia in mid- January -- a move widely seen as helping repair the often rocky relationship between the two nations.

Keating, who created a 1993 diplomatic row by calling the Malaysian prime minister recalcitrant, urged both Australia and Malaysia to cast aside old prejudices.

"Paradoxically, there are dangers in our very closeness and familiarity with each other," Keating said in a speech launching the Australia-Malaysia Society.

"Precisely because this relationship is so old, it brings with it a lot of preconceptions which can impede a clear view of each other," Keating said when announcing the visit.

"I have no doubt that Australia needs to view Malaysia in a new way and that the same is true in the other direction."

The Australia-Malaysia relationship has followed a rocky path through the 1980s and 1990s.