PM Howard will visit tsunami-hit Aceh province
PM Howard will visit tsunami-hit Aceh province
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Australian Prime Minister John Howard is scheduled to visit
Indonesia's tsunami-hit northern province of Aceh on Wednesday to
see personally the situation there and to give support to
Australian aid personnel currently assisting victims of the
disaster.
Howard's visit comes a day after Brunei's Sultan Hassanal
Bolkiah toured Aceh on Tuesday.
"I will meet Australian personnel at the airport, medical
staff working at the ANZAC field hospital and engineers working
to clear wreckage and reconnect water supplies," Howard said in a
statement sent to The Jakarta Post by the Australian Embassy in
Jakarta.
"I hope to be able to personally recognize and congratulate
these fine Australians on their work and to appreciate directly
the challenges faced by the Acehnese people and the Indonesian
government,"
During the one-day visit, Howard also plans to meet
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Alwi Shihab and
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda.
"I hope (during the meetings) to gain insight into how
Australia can work with the Indonesian authorities in the period
ahead as we embark on the next phase of the relief work and we
begin the recovery and reconstruction phases,"
"These insights will be very valuable as we move forward with
the A$1 billion (US$764 million) Australia-Indonesia partnership
for reconstruction and development package announced by President
Yudhoyono (Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono)," he said.
Meanwhile, Howard said in Singapore that there were no plans
to increase Australia's aid to its giant neighbor to deal with
the aftermath of the tsunami.
"I think Australia's aid has been very, very generous and
appropriate and I don't think anybody is suggesting that we have
been anything other than very strong and up there with everybody
else," Howard told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
"In fact, I think Australia's contribution to this terrible
tragedy has been very praiseworthy indeed, and has attracted very
strong praise and support all around the world."
Australia, the world's largest tsunami aid donor, has pledged
a total of A$1 billion in grants and interest-free loans over
five years for Indonesia.
Australia also deployed six C-130 transport planes and the
HMAS Kanimbla to Aceh.
Bilateral relations between Jakarta and Canberra reached a low
point in 1999, when Australia led a UN-peacekeeping force into
East Timor to end Indonesia's 24-year rule in the territory,
after East Timorese rejected an Indonesian proposal for wide
autonomy in a plebiscite.
The two countries' relationship improved in late 2002
following the deadly Bali bombing which killed 202 people, 88 of
them Australian.
Analysts have suggested that relations were further improved
because of the Australian government's fast response in providing
assistance to Indonesia to deal with the tsunami disaster.