US State Dept confirms Clinton visit

 November 10, 2012
AAP

The US State Department has confirmed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will visit Australia next week for top-level talks.

She will attend the annual Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) consultations in Perth before travelling to Adelaide.

Ms Clinton will be accompanied by US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta for the AUSMIN talks, to be held on Wednesday.

Although long expected, the visit comes just after the US presidential election and amid speculation that neither Ms Clinton or Mr Panetta will seek a second term of the Obama administration.

AUSMIN is the highest level forum for Australia and US consultation on foreign policy, defence and strategic issues.
On the Australian side will be Defence Minister Stephen Smith and Foreign Minister Bob Carr.
Ms Clinton arrives in Perth on Sunday.

She will meet Prime Minister Julia Gillard and Senator Carr, and visit the new United States and Asia Centre.

After AUSMIN Ms Clinton will travel to Adelaide to meet Australian business leaders and visit Techport Australia, the nation's largest and most advanced shipbuilding facility and home of the navy's air warfare destroyer project.

Ms Clinton's visit to Australia is part of a sweep through South-East Asia which also includes visits to Singapore, Thailand, Burma and Cambodia.

She travels to Singapore on November 16-17 to discuss a range of issues with senior government officials including Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam.
On November 17, Ms Clinton heads to Bangkok, Thailand, joining newly re-elected President Barack Obama and his delegation on November 18 for meetings with Prime Minister Yingluck and other senior Thai officials.

She goes with President Obama to Burma on November 19 and will join his meetings with Burmese President Thein Sein and Chair of the National League for Democracy and Member of Parliament Aung San Suu Kyi.

After that she and President Obama travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on November 19-20 to attend the US-ASEAN Leaders Meeting and the East Asia Summit.