Australia Starts Looking Up To India In Matters Security And Defence
Prime Minister Morrison of Australia, accompanied by high level official and business delegation will be the chief guest at the 2020 Raisina Dialogue, and will deliver the inaugural address. For Australia, India is the Kingpin and the mainstay of the Indo-Pacific strategy. The dialogue is an annual event organised jointly by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
There after the Australian Prime Minister will call upon Modi and there will be a bilateral meeting between Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Morrison in an effort to cement the relations between the two countries.
Prior to the visit of the Morrison led delegation, the Defence Secretary of Australia Greg Moriarty and Foreign Secretary Frances Adamson have come to India to hold the the third India-Australia Secretary level 2+2 Dialogue in New Delhi on Monday. Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar and Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale led the Indian delegation.
Bilateral defence engagements between the two countries, identifying areas for enhancing cooperation in the field of the Defence industry and Defence technology and issues related to the regional security were on the agenda of talks. At bilateral as well at the 2+2 the two sides discussed the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement also.
According to the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Indian side sought deeper cooperation and engagements between the armed forces of the two countries.
Recently, India hosted the Japanese Defence minister in New Delhi for the first India-Japan 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Meeting where the focus of talks was on maritime cooperation, security, terrorism and Pakistan.
Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh will soon be heading to the US next week for the second Indo-US 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue and with that New Delhi would complete its engagements with the so called Quad before the year ends. China will surely watching the outcome of these meets.
In the bilateral relations between India and Australia have witnessed a convergence of strategic perspectives. Australia is keen for good relations with India because only this will lead to a prosperous and inclusive Indo-Pacific region which would serve the long-term interests of all countries in the region.
The relationship between the two countries was elevated to a Strategic Partnership in 2009, and had also adopted a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation. Both countries have inked a pact for civil nuclear cooperation in 2014.
