PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA WEDNESDAY JUNE 23 1982
13TH SOUTH PACIFIC FORUM
I shall be at~ tending the 13th South Pacific Forum Meeting
to be held in Rotorua, New Zealand, on 9 and 10 August 1982.
The'South Pacific is a region of primary importance to
Australia. The Forum has since its inception in 1971 provided
a unique opportunity for regular meetings of Heads of Government
oil independent and self-governing South Pacific States, including
Australia and New Zealand. The forum has been the instigator
of, many positive measures of regional co-operation which have
been developed in the South Pacific, and has been the chief
means by which leaders have maintained regular contact with
one another in an area where distance often imakes such contact
difficult. I am looking forward to exchanging views with South Pacif ic
leaders on regional and international political and economic
developments of significance to member governments. I shall
also have an. opportunity to have bilateral discussions with
Heads of Government of neighbouring island states and New Zealand.
13TH SOUTH PACIFIC FORUM
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