Next week, leaders of India and Australia are expected to meet virtually and the first ever historic interim trade agreement will be concluded. According to sources, though the dates have not been announced officially, the talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Australian PM Scott Morrison will focus on several issues of mutual interests including free and open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, rules based order, enhancing trade ties, situation between Russia and Ukraine, as well as defence cooperation.
This is the second time the leaders of the two countries are meeting virtually. The first was in June 2020, during the global pandemic of COVID-19.
The summit level meeting between the two leaders comes in the midst of the crisis between Russia and Ukraine and it also comes close on the heels of the expected visit of the Japanese Prime Minister Prime Minister Fumio Kishida over the weekend. This will be the Japanese leader’s maiden visit to India.
The changing world as the war between Russia and Ukraine continues and an aggressive China in the Indo-Pacific will be discussed by the leaders who are also part of the QUAD.
Earlier this month, as has been reported earlier, the two leaders were part of the virtual QUAD meeting which took place at the request of the US to discuss issues related to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis.
The virtual meeting between the two leaders also comes at a time when Australia’s federal elections are scheduled to take place soon.
Both countries had their first ever 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in September 2021 and the focus was on free and open Indo-Pacific, maritime security as well as the situation in Afghanistan after it fell to the Taliban on August 15.
The navies of both countries have participated in various drills and have also concluded important agreements like the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement in 2014; Technical Agreement on White Shipping Information Exchange in 2015 and in 2020 a Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA).
During the virtual meet in 2020, the bilateral relation between the two countries was elevated to “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”. They both are already engaged in various formats of dialogues and have been cooperating in several sectors including cooperation in cyber-enabled critical technology, critical and strategic materials, defence science exchanges, maritime security, and mutual logistics support. Both sides are also working in other areas like water resources management, and vocational training amongst others.
Australia as a member of the small Like-Minded Group of — Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) members has supported India’s admission to the “small group’’.
It is also a key partner in the Indo-Pacific and the QUAD initiative and is also part of trilateral and multilateral initiatives like the India-Australia-Indonesia, India-Australia-France, as well as ASEAN led forums.
It is one of the major educational destinations for the Indian students and there is a Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF). This fund allows the scientists of the two countries to work together on cutting edge technologies.
India-Australia Biotechnology Fund, India-Australia Science & Technology Fund; Grand Challenge Fund; and Fellowship Schemes are all part of AISRF.
Also, India, Australia and Japan and Australia have launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) which will help in diversifying and secure supply chains for the COVID-19 vaccines.
