The Governor-General, Ms Quentin Bryce AC, will visit Africa this month to strengthen Australian engagement with Africa at the highest levels of Government.
The Governor-General has been invited to visit Mauritius, Namibia, Zambia, Botswana, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and the Seychelles in a series of State and official visits.
These visits will involve high-level meetings with the leaders of those countries, as well as support for trade and investment, significantly expanded development and humanitarian assistance, and co-operation on peace and international security issues.
A visit to Africa of this scale by Australia's Head of State will express the seriousness of Australia's commitment to heightened political and diplomatic engagement, and to building our bilateral relationships with African countries and the continent as a whole.
It will also reflect the growing interests that Australia has in Africa. Trade is growing fast, and there have been substantial Australian investments in recent years. African countries have an increasingly important role in finding collective, multilateral solutions to global issues such as trade reform, the global financial crisis, climate change, arms control, terrorism and regional conflicts.
The Governor-General will engage African leaders on a range of regional and multilateral issues in which Australia has a key stake.
She will highlight Australia's expanding aid program to Africa and convey the commitments made by the Australian Government directly to the countries that she visits.
The visit will take place from March 15 to April 3.