Australian PM Turnbull embarks on diplomatic visits

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull left Canberra on Thursday to begin a 10-day overseas trip which will bring him to Indonesia, Germany, Turkey, Malaysia and the Philippines.

The main stop on Turnbull's agenda is a meeting of G20 at a summit in the coastal Turkish town of Antalya, and the prime minister had said the theme of the summit needed to be the future economic growth and job creation in the aftermath of the global financial crisis.

"We need to maintain the G20's attention on promoting future growth through innovation, structural reform and infrastructure, rather than simply looking backwards at the global financial crisis," he told the press prior to his departure from Canberra Thursday morning.

But Turnbull's first stop on the tour will be in Jakarta, where he will meet with President Joko Widodo for the first time since taking over the prime ministership in September.

Turnbull will then head to Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. He is expected to discuss further ways in which Australia and Germany can improve diplomatic and economic ties.

Following the G20 meetings in Turkey, Turnbull will turn his attention to the Philippines for a meeting of the APEC leaders, and finally a short stop in Kuala Lumpur for the East Asia Summit.

Climate change, Australia's asylum seekers policy and counter-terrorism are all on the agenda for the string of multilateral and bilateral meetings. Enditem