With racial attacks on Indians giving a bad name to Australia, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has assured that his country is "safe" for foreign students. Rudd, who was on a visit here, said his government welcomed foreign students and took their security "very seriously". He felt that such acts of violence, as faced by Indian students recently in Australia, could happen in every city in the world. "In every city in the world, unfortunately, there are going to be acts of violence from time to time," Rudd was quoted as saying by Star online on Wednesday. Rudd said he was not playing down the issue and added: "one act of violence is one too many; one death is one too many."

The Australian Prime Minister was here on Monday for a brief stopover en route to Europe. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and his Australian counterpart discussed bilateral issues during their one-hour meeting. Rudd later told reporters that Australia and Malaysia would work towards expanding areas in higher education and training. At least 20,000 Malaysians, including Malaysian- Indians are studying in Australia. "We are multi-cultural and we are proud over it. We are not a perfect society but we are completely comfortable with our future in the region."