16 October 1986
I am pleasad to announce that the President of Botswana, Dr Quett Masire, has accepted an invitation to visit Australia from 17-. 19 October as a guest of the Government.
Since I met President Masire almost a year ago at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Nassau the situation in South Africa has continued to deteriorate. Australia, in the contexct of the Commonwealth, has introduced a wide range of measures designed to put pressure on the South African Government to abandon. its iniquitous apartheid policy.
In the last two months the build-up of international concern about the situation in South Africa has further been demonstrated by the introduction of similar measures by the European Community, Japan and the United States.
President Masire's visit to Australia will provide the Government with an invaluable oppbrtunity to discuss all these recent events with the leader of one of the Front Line States most affected by events in the southern African region.