Context

India and Australia, which share common values and interests, must work together with resolve to shape the economic and strategic environment so that it continues to support collective security and prosperity.

India-Australia ties: A background

• The ties are a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership full of practical, tangible actions that strengthen ties and benefit the region.
• India and Australia are a small group of countries to hold annual leaders’ summits and biennial 2+2 talks involving foreign and defence ministers.
• The defence forces of both the countries are undertaking more complex activities together, such as in Exercise Malabar with the US and Japan.
• We coordinate closely on maritime domain awareness.
• This year both countries deployed P-8 surveillance aircraft to each other’s territories for joint patrols.
• Australia has also committed to a package of partnership initiatives in our update to the India Economic Strategy.
• Cooperation on climate and sustainability: India and Australia have great potential to cooperate on climate and sustainability.

Why India matters to Australia

• Securing supply chain: India’s economy, manufacturing capabilities and talent ensure it will play a key role in securing supply chains and restarting post-pandemic growth.
• Balance of power: Its military has the capacity and capability to respond to natural disasters, help stabilise an uncertain region and contribute to an effective balance of power.
• Technological and scientific capabilities: Its technological and scientific capabilities are gateways to a cleaner and more sustainable world.
•  Commitment to democracy: Most of all, India’s people have the optimism, the commitment to democracy, the drive and the goodwill to make our region safer, freer and better.

Vision for open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific region

• As the bilateral relationship deepens, both the countries must begin to work more together with others in the region.
• Responding to humanitarian crises and natural disasters: There is enormous potential in the Indian and Pacific oceans, where we each have vital interests in combating climate change, illegal fishing and people smuggling and responding to humanitarian crises and natural disasters.
•  Australia has a vision for an open, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific region.
• It is a vision for a region that is more integrated rather than divided, where trade and investment flow freely based on agreed rules and treaty commitments, where disputes are resolved through dialogue in accordance with international law, and where a strategic culture that respects the rights of all states, big and small, prevails.
• It is a vision that Australia share with partners like ASEAN, and partners like India.
• Whether through joint activities with like-minded countries, or the support of regional and multilateral architecture, Australia is ensuring the region has options and balance.

Conclusion

India and Australia’s interests don’t just align, they are inextricably entwined. Expect this relationship to grow and prosper, our cooperation to deepen.

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