Australia has promised to crack down on cases of violent attacks on Indian students studying in the country after the matter was raised during Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s visit on Thursday. “As the Prime Minister of Australia, I am deeply disturbed and disgusted by attacks of violence against any foreign students studying in our country as our guests,” Rudd said, adding that such attacks would not be tolerated and would be “dealt with by the full force of the Australian law enforcement and criminal justice systems”.

India, which had earlier too expressed deep concerns about racial attacks on students, raised the matter during the visit. The continued attacks came up for discussion during the meeting between Rudd and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

“I have conveyed my concern to Prime Minister Rudd over the safety, security and the well-being of our students in Australia,” Singh said after his meeting with the Australian premier at Hyderabad house.

Rudd said work was underway to ensure the security of foreign students in his country. “It is the responsibility of Australians to ensure the security of foreign students. We have work underway on this,” he said. Later while winding up his three-day visit to India, he said: “As the Prime Minister of Australia, I accept responsibility for the criminal justice system there. But I cannot provide an iron-clad guarantee that such attacks would not occur in the future.”

The Australian premier said there was great scope for expansion of security ties between the countries and cooperation should be broadened in the areas of maritime security, anti-terror and sharing of intelligence. Rudd said the two countries had strengthened ties in counter-terror cooperation and intelligence sharing . With PTI