Indonesia would be first focus

INDONESIA will be Tony Abbott's first port of call overseas if elected prime minister.

INDONESIA will be Tony Abbott's first port of call overseas if elected prime minister.

The Liberal leader has put an emphasis on visiting "the neighbourhood" before heading off to the US and Europe.

The Opposition Leader has promised to visit Australia's two largest trading partners, China and Japan, and Australian troops in Afghanistan on his first "sweep" beyond the immediate region.

Mr Abbott would not nominate which of the Asian economic giants he would visit first but guaranteed he would visit both on the same trip.

He would also give greater prominence to visiting India than Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard had because he believed India's potential had been underplayed over the past decade.

When Mr Rudd made his first major trip overseas, he caused consternation when he finished a global tour in China but did not visit Japan. The former prime minister made his first visit overseas to Indonesia to attend the Bali climate change conference and to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.

In an interview with The Australian, Mr Abbott said he would focus first on regional visits as prime minister.

"It would have to be Indonesia first -- the plan would be to do a quick swing around the neighbourhood, and the neighbourhood is Indonesia, East Timor, Papua New Guinea and New Zealand," Mr Abbott said yesterday. "Then you would do a wider sweep, depending on logistics -- you would have to do China and Japan on the first trip beyond the neighbourhood and you would have to go to Afghanistan very, very quickly.

"You would have to go to London and Washington but you shouldn't forget New Delhi. I think New Delhi has been the great absence from Australia's diplomatic thinking over the last decade.

"The former government was thinking more about India but that sensible awakening by the previous government to the potential for India seems to have been completely forgotten by the current government."