Krishna leaves for home

During his visit, Krishna participated in the Annual Post Forum Dialogue Meeting of the Pacific Island Forum (PIF) in Cairns and met Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith.

Krishna, who raised the issue of racial attacks against Indian students in Australia with Rudd and Smith, was assured by them that every Indian student in this country would be protected.

The External Affairs Minister also met with the Indian community members and visited student from Andhra Pradesh Shravan Kumar, who is yet to fully recover from a brutal assault by a group of teenagers here in May.

At least 23 Indian students have been attacked in this country in the past three months, which has threatened Australia's USD 13-billion international education industry. Australia is home to over 95,000 Indian students.