I will travel to India and Malaysia from 4 to 6 September.
On my first visit to India as Prime Minister, I will visit New Delhi and India’s financial capital, Mumbai, to strengthen the strategic partnership between our two countries.
Australia and India have strong and growing economic and trade ties. India is Australia's fifth largest export market, with total exports of $11.4 billion, and there is potential for further cooperation in resources, science, technology and education.
My visit will be an opportunity to engage with Prime Minister Modi early in the term of his government to increase bilateral cooperation to advance our mutual interests.
I will also meet other senior political leaders, including the President.
The visit will be an opportunity to promote trade and investment and promote our G20 objectives ahead of the Brisbane summit in November.
I will be accompanied on my visit to India by a group of senior business leaders. The delegation reflects the breadth of Australian commercial interests in India and showcases opportunities for further business partnerships.
Following my visit to India, I will travel to Malaysia for talks with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Australia’s defence ties with Malaysia are amongst our closest in South East Asia and we feel a deep connection to Malaysia given shared experiences arising from the MH370 and MH17 disasters.
Our trade has grown year-on-year, with two-way trade last year worth almost $18 billion.
Hundreds of thousands of Malaysians have studied in Australia and we will soon see more Australians travelling the other way when Malaysia joins the New Colombo Plan in 2015.
I will return to Australia on September 7.
29 August 2014