Australian Prime Minister John Howard met with Indonesia's president yesterday during a lightning visit to Bali, with discussions expected to focus on trade and security.
Howard met for about 45 minutes with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who flew to the island from South Korea where he paid an official visit this week.
"I look forward to reviewing with President Yudhoyono the full range of our existing cooperative activities, including important areas such as security, counter-terrorism and transnational crime," Howard said in a statement from the Australian embassy ahead of the talks.
Indonesia captured two senior leaders of the Jemaah Islamiyah terror network last month. The Islamic extremist network is blamed for the 2002 bombings on the resort island which left 202 people dead, including 88 Australians, as well as suicide bombings in 2005 that left a further four Australians dead.
The Australian prime minister's visit comes just weeks after Canberra warned that a terrorist attack may be imminent in the sprawling archipelago nation.
Howard added that a recommendation made by the two countries' trade ministers to conduct a feasibility study into a bilateral free trade agreement would also be discussed.
"I am keen to explore how [our trading relationship] can be further strengthened," he said.
Australia's trade minister visited Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous nation, last month.
EYE CENTER
Howard later opened the Australia-Bali Memorial Eye Center, built from memorial assistance provided by Australia in the wake of the October 2002 attacks.
President Yudhoyono said that the multimillion dollar center was a monument to "the enduring and growing friendships between the government and people of Indonesia and Australia."
The center will provide mostly free treatment to blind Indonesians as well as training facilities for Indonesian eye specialists.
CONSULATE
Howard is also to open a new Australian consulate-general in Bali. The former office was closed for security reasons after the Australian embassy in Jakarta was bombed in September 2004.
Howard was expected to lay a wreath in a memorial garden in the consulate's grounds.
The two nations share an occasionally tempestuous relationship.
The most recent incident saw Jakarta's infuriated governor receive a flurry of apologies from senior Australian officials over his alleged ill treatment by police during a visit to Sydney.
Police had entered his hotel room using a master key and urged him to give evidence at an inquest into the death of five Australian journalists in East Timor in 1975.
Relations have also been tarnished by six Australian drug traffickers receiving death sentences for attempting to smuggle drugs out of Bali.
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