PRESIDENT TO VISIT AUSTRALIA, PNG IN MARCH

Jakarta, Feb 18 (ANTARA) - President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to visit Australia on March 8 - 11 and Papua New Guinea on March 11 - 12, 2010, his spokesman, Dino Patty Djalal, said here on Thursday.

Djalal said the president's visits to the two countries were initially to have taken place in early 2009 but they were postponed because of pressing activities at home.

"The visit to Australia will constitute a traditional visit as at the beginning of his first government in 2005, Yudhoyono also visited Australia," Dino said.

He said Indonesia - Australia's bilateral cooperation had drastically increased in recent years and led , among other things, to the signing of a strategic partnership agreement in 2005 and of the Lombok Treaty.

During his visit to Canberra, the president would meet Asutralia's governor general and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd to discuss bilateral, regional and international cooperation.

"The president will also receive the leader of Australia's opposition party and address a joint session of the Australian parliament," he said.

Included in the agenda in Australia were talks on how to maintain the direction of the strategic partnership cooperation and formulate various common interests such on issues of climate change, financial reforms as fellow members of G20 and trade cooperation within the context of the Doha Round.

From Canberra, the president would go to Sydney to attend a meeting with Australian businessmen.

In the meantime, Yudhoyono's visit to PNG would be his first to the neighboring country. However, cooperation between the two countries has always been very close such as in the fields of forestry and climate change.

Indonesia and PNG established diplomatic ties in 1975 and their relations had since then been running well such as in the fields of economy, trade and border issues.