PM Transcripts

PRIME MINISTER
FOR MEDIA 17 DECEMBER 1989
So*, vi~ et Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov will visit Australia from
1.3-16 February 1990. fie will be the most senior Soviet
figure ever to do so.
Premier Ryzhkov' s visit, which is in response to a
long-standing invitation from me, underlines the important
* contact that has been developed between Australia and the
Soviet Union in recent years.
My Government has worked to expand what was formerly a
narrow and neglected bilateral relationship into one where
we are developing co-operation in areas as diverse as trade
and commerce, fisheries, human contacts and the environment.
Premier Ryzhkov's visit provides a timely occasion to
discuss and formalise developments in these areas. It will
also allow uIS to examine opportunities for further expanding
the economtic dimension of our relationship.
Importantly, Premier Ryzhkov visits at a time when we are
seeing dramatic and far reaching change in many parts of the
world. The program of reform initiated by Soviet President Mikhail
Gorbachev has brought about many positive and fundamental
changes in the international. scene. Nowhere have thesa been
more dramatically illustrated than in Europe, where the Iron
Curtain of di~ vision is crumbling in the face of popular
pressure for reform and unity. We have also seen the Soviet.
Union and the United States co-operate in seeking to resolve
long-standing regional conflicts such as those in Angola and
Afghanistan, and in bringing about important progress on
disarmament. I will1. pursue with Premier Ryzhicov these various
international developments, as well. as issues of importance
to our immediate region. 1 will also discuss the reforms
1-hat have been put into place in the Soviet Union since I
last spoke to Soviet leaders, including President Gorbachev,
duting my last visit to Moscow in 1987. 11 1_ 8 I