Krishna discusses safety and security of Indian students in Australia

Cairns (Australia), Aug 7 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S M Krishna on Friday met his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith in Cairns, and discussed issues related to safety and security of Indian students in Australia.

Following the meeting, the two ministers held a news conference where Krishna expressed satisfaction at the level of assurances that have been offered by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.

"I am glad to say that Prime Minister Rudd and Foreign Minister Smith have both assured me that the process is well underway to look into all the issues and put measures into place to resolve it," Krishna said.

"The government of India is ready to work with the Australian government in areas that need giant supervision such as regulating education and immigration agents in India," he added.

Meanwhile, Smith announced further cooperation between the nations to regulate better security for Indian students and better quality education.

"We have 80 to 90 thousand Indian students in Australia, it is actually a measure of the success of the relationship. It reflects long-standing people to people engagement. It also reflects the strength of the economic relationship," said Stephen Smith.

"India is of course Australia's fifth largest trading partner. But, we have seen difficulties in the recent times; firstly on security and secondly on aspects or issues of quality and we had a good discussion about those matters and agreed that as governments we should continue to work closely together," Smith added. (ANI)