Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard has a busy schedule while in the United States in the days ahead to March 13.
Her first official duty will be to announce Australia’s $3.3 million cash contribution towards a U.S. Vietnam War memorial centre designed to honour Australians who fell in a war that caused huge divisions, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Sixty thousand Australians fought in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972 with 521 deaths and more than 3,000 wounded. Protests began to rise and spread widely across both countries in the late 1960’s, until the soldiers were withdrawn.
“I don’t have direct memory of the moratorium [protests] and things like...but I certainly have direct experience with Vietnam veterans in my own electorate who still feel very strongly that division in our country and around the world,” Gillard said.
The Australian-funded part of the memorial will feature records of the Australian Vietnam war casualties, as well as displays and temporary exhibitions of Anzac Day, Long Tan Day, and other significant Australian milestones.
The memorial will be situated in the underground centre near the Lincoln Memorial, and is expected to attract millions of foreign visitors, according to the Telegraph.
Gillard will next meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House, and make her mark as the first foreign dignitary to address the new U.S. Congress, and only the fourth Australian prime minister ever to do so, according to ABC News.
Her speech will commemorate 60 years of the ANZUS Treaty, the ABC reported. The alliance, signed in 1951 on defence matters in the Pacific Ocean area, cemented three-way ties with New Zealand, although today the treaty is understood to relate to attacks in any area.
Gillard and Obama are expected to discuss security in the Asia-Pacific region, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, which will be followed on with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
She will continue talks on the global economy with officials, with plans to lunch with News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch and talks with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
Meanwhile, The Herald Sun reports that Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd hopes Gillard will discuss boosting aid to Egypt during talks with Obama.
Rudd has has warned, since the democratic ousting of ex-President Hosni Mubarak from power, that peace in Egypt could end unless international action is taken to stabilise the country.
Her first official duty will be to announce Australia’s $3.3 million cash contribution towards a U.S. Vietnam War memorial centre designed to honour Australians who fell in a war that caused huge divisions, The Daily Telegraph reported.
Sixty thousand Australians fought in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972 with 521 deaths and more than 3,000 wounded. Protests began to rise and spread widely across both countries in the late 1960’s, until the soldiers were withdrawn.
“I don’t have direct memory of the moratorium [protests] and things like...but I certainly have direct experience with Vietnam veterans in my own electorate who still feel very strongly that division in our country and around the world,” Gillard said.
The Australian-funded part of the memorial will feature records of the Australian Vietnam war casualties, as well as displays and temporary exhibitions of Anzac Day, Long Tan Day, and other significant Australian milestones.
The memorial will be situated in the underground centre near the Lincoln Memorial, and is expected to attract millions of foreign visitors, according to the Telegraph.
Gillard will next meet with U.S. President Barack Obama at the White House, and make her mark as the first foreign dignitary to address the new U.S. Congress, and only the fourth Australian prime minister ever to do so, according to ABC News.
Her speech will commemorate 60 years of the ANZUS Treaty, the ABC reported. The alliance, signed in 1951 on defence matters in the Pacific Ocean area, cemented three-way ties with New Zealand, although today the treaty is understood to relate to attacks in any area.
Gillard and Obama are expected to discuss security in the Asia-Pacific region, Afghanistan, and the Middle East, which will be followed on with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
She will continue talks on the global economy with officials, with plans to lunch with News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch and talks with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.
Meanwhile, The Herald Sun reports that Australia’s Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd hopes Gillard will discuss boosting aid to Egypt during talks with Obama.
Rudd has has warned, since the democratic ousting of ex-President Hosni Mubarak from power, that peace in Egypt could end unless international action is taken to stabilise the country.
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