United States presidential visits to Australia and New Zealand United States presidential visits to Australia and New Zealand Several United States presidents have made presidential visits to Australia and New Zealand. The first visit by an incumbent to these Australasian nations was made in 1966 by Lyndon B. Johnson. His three-day five-city visit to Australia was intended as a show of gratitude to the Australian nation for its then emphatic support for the Vietnam War. Four presidents have traveled there since. Prior to arriving in Australia, Johnson visited New Zealand. He went primarily to shore up support for the war in Vietnam. Only one sitting president has visited since.
2015 Xi Jinping visit to the United States in attendance called on President Obama to ask Xi Jinping to stop the persecution of Tibetans, Uyghurs, religious groups, non-governmental organizations, intellectuals, democracy advocates, and supporters of "universal suffrage" in Hong Kong. Xi had previously visited the United States six times. His first visit was as part of a corn industry delegation to the state of Iowa in 1985. His most recent visit in 2013 was informal, in which he went to Sunnylands in California, and met with US President Barack Obama. On September 22, 2015, Xi Jinping, and his wife, Peng Liyuan, arrived at Paine Field and stepped off