Australian leader visits Indonesia’s Makassar to deepen ties

By NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has visited an eastern Indonesia area with close ties to Indigenous Australians as he continued a trip aiming to strengthen his country’s economic ties with its closest major neighbor. Albanese said visiting Makassar on Sulawesi Island was an important symbol of Australia recognizing it needed to reach out in the diverse archipelago nation of 270 million people. Albanese said, “Australia understands that Indonesia is much, much more than Jakarta and Bali. He said he was Australia’s first prime minister to visit Makassar, the largest city in eastern Indonesia. He’ll give public lectures at Hasanuddin University and visit a flour mill that uses Australian wheat before he returns home.