PM Transcripts

ASIAN TOUR 1967 VISIT TO CAMBODIA
ARRIVAL PRESS STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER
OF AUSTRALIA, THE RT. HON. HAROLD HOLT MP.
It is my privilege to be the first Australian Prime Minister
to visit Cambodia. I do this in response to the gracious invitation of your
eminent Head of State, Prince Norodom Sihanouk. That invitation was
extended to me through the intermediary of His Excellency Mr. Son Sann
during his visit to Australia in February. I have taken the first opportunity
open to me to respond to such a welcome invitation.
I have come here to see your country with my own eyes and
to meet in person your Head of State, your leaders and the people of Cambodia.
My desire to visit Cambodia has been encouraged by all that I have heard
about your country including happy accounts from my Minister for External
Affairs who has twice been your guest in the last three years. I am delighted
that with the comprehensive programme that has been arranged for my visit.
I shall have an opportunity to see so much of Cambodia, both the spi endour
of the past and the achievements of the present.
I hope that my visit will be viewed by you as a gesture of
goodwill designed to improve and strengthen the ties between us.
Cambodia is one of Australia's close neighbours. Our people
are becoming increasingly aware of each other. Both our countries are
concerned in the welfare of this area of the world in which we live. We
share, I am convinced, a common desire to contribute to the independence,
stability, progress and prosperity of the peoples of South-East Asia and to
the growth of friendly and co-operative relations within the region.
Relations between Cambodia and Australia are close, cordial
and co-operative. In the words of Cambodia's distinguished Head of State,
Prince Norodom Sihanouk, they offer " an eloquent example of successful
co-existence, not merely peaceful but friendly, between nations which have
made different options in their external policies". The friendship between
our two countries, which has grown steadily over the years, is firmly based
on mutual confidence, understanding and respect.
Australians see Cambodia as a singularly peaceful. united
stable and happy country, intent on developing its own characteristic way.
I would hope that Cambodians will increasingly regard
Australia as a friend, sympathetic and willing to co-operate in furthering
the aspirations for peaceful progress of the peoples of the South-East Asian
region. It is my pleasure and honour to bring to the people of
Cambodia the greetings and best wishes of the people of Australia.
March 29, 1967