Try Sutrisno to leave for Australia for three-day visit
Try Sutrisno to leave for Australia for three-day visit
JAKARTA (JP): Vice President Try Sutrisno will leave for
Australia tomorrow for a three-day visit at the invitation of
Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans.
Try is scheduled to meet with the Australian Governor General
Bill Hayden, Prime Minister Paul Keating and Evans, the
Australian embassy said yesterday.
His entourage will include Minister of Industry Tunky
Ariwibowo, Minister of Defense and Security Edi Sudrajat,
Minister of Transmigration Siswono Yudohusodo and Cabinet
Secretary Saadillah Mursjid.
Minister/State Secretary Moerdiono said yesterday that the
visit is aimed at promoting Indonesia-Australia bilateral
relations in politics, economics, culture, security and defense.
Try, a retired Army general, is scheduled to address a Royal
United Services Institute international seminar on regional
security in the Asia-Pacific toward 2001 to be opened by Keating
at the Australian Defense Force Academy in Canberra on Sept. 22.
The institute is a think-tank that groups both retired and
active military officers focusing their studies on strategic and
international affairs.
Try will also lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
at the Australian war memorial on Sept. 23 before leaving
Canberra.
The vice president will spend the first day of his visit in
Sydney and attend a gala dinner hosted by Evans aboard the Aussie
Magic in Walsh Bay Wharf.
His Sydney itinerary also includes a meeting with Australian
business leaders and another with the Indonesian community in
Australia. Both events will be held on Friday in Canberra.
Try will become the highest Indonesian official to ever visit
Australia for a very long time.
In contrast, almost every Australian head of government has
visited Indonesia, including Prime Minister Paul Keating, who
will be making his fourth trip to Jakarta this November.
Relations between the neighbors, which were turbulent in the
1970s and 1980s, have significantly improved in the last five
years, a factor many have attributed to the hard work of Evans
and his Indonesian counterpart Ali Alatas. (pan)