News Highlights:
- India Australia bilateral relations: India has been referred to as Australia’s “top-tier security partner” by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia.
- Australia will host Exercise Malabar for the first time, and India will participate in Australia’s Talisman Sabre exercise.
High-end military engagements:
- Exercise Talisman Sabre:
- Exercise Talisman Sabre is a biennial, multinational military exercise led by Australia and the United States.
- The leadership of the exercise switches between Australia and the US every 2 years.
- The exercise focuses on crisis-action planning and contingency response, enhancing both nations’ military capabilities to deal with regional contingencies and the War on Terrorism.
- The exercise is historically held in odd-numbered years starting from 2005, with the ninth iteration in 2021.
- Talisman Sabre 2021 was the largest bilateral combined training activity between Australia and the USA and saw the participation of approximately 17,000 military personnel from seven nations on land, air and sea.
- The other countries include Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, and the U.K.
- India will participate in Australia’s Talisman Sabre exercise for the first time in 2023.
- Malabar Exercise:
- It is a multilateral war-gaming naval exercise that started in 1992.
- It began as a bilateral exercise between the navies of India and the United States.
- Navies of the four member nations of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or the Quad — India, the United States, Japan, and Australia — are participating in the 25th edition of the Malabar Exercise.
- From 2002 onward, the exercise was conducted every year.
- Japan and Australia first participated in 2007, and since 2014, India, the US and Japan have participated in the annual exercise.
- Expansion of Malabar Exercise:
- Japan joined the naval exercise in 2015 as a permanent member, and Malabar became a trilateral exercise.
- Last year, for the first time in over a decade, the exercise saw the participation of all four Quad members.
- It was the third time that Australia participated in the Malabar series of Naval exercises.
India-Australia Relations:
- History:
- India and Australia have commercial ties dating back to the 18th century when India played a central role in nourishing the young colony.
- Trade with Australia became an essential element in the operations of the East India Company in Bengal.
- At the beginning of the 19th century, several British colonial families from India made a life for themselves in the new Australian colonies.
- India’s first High Commissioner to Australia arrived in Canberra in 1945.
- The Consulate General of India in Melbourne was opened in 2006.
- The Consulate General of India in Perth was inaugurated in October 2011.
- Political relations:
- Australia supports India’s candidature in an expanded UN Security Council.
- Both India and Australia are members of the G-20, Commonwealth, IOR-ARC, ASEAN Regional Forum, and Asia Pacific Partnership on Climate and Clean Development.
- They have participated in the East Asia Summits.
- Both countries have also been cooperating as members of the Five Interested Parties (FIP) in the WTO context.
- Australia is an essential player in APEC and supports India’s membership in the organisation.
- In 2008, Australia became an Observer in SAARC.
- Defence cooperation:
- In June 2020, Australia and India upgraded their Secretaries 2+2 dialogue (Defence and Foreign Affairs) to the Ministerial level.
- Ministers from the two countries will meet at least every two years to engage in the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
- Australia participated in the MALABAR naval exercise in October 2020, joining India, the United States, and Japan.
- A joint naval exercise called AUSINDEX is carried out between India and Australia annually.
- The Indian Air Force participated in Exercise Pitch Black, Australia’s multilateral exercise in Darwin, in 2018.
- Trade & Investment:
- Australia is India’s eighth-largest trading partner, and India is Australia’s fifth-largest.
- India’s ranking among Australia’s export destinations has risen from twelfth to fourth in the period 2003-04 to 2009-10.
- India’s main service exports to Australia are computer and information services and tourism.
- The main Australian service exports to India are education, education-related travel, and tourism.
- The two sides agreed to commence negotiations for a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).
- Indian diaspora in Australia:
- There is a fast-growing Indian community of nearly 295,000 residing in Australia.
- This does not include the people of Indian origin from other countries, such as South Africa, Fiji, Malaysia, Kenya, etc., who have migrated to Australia.
- They are significant contributors to the Australian economy as teachers, accountants, doctors, engineers and I.T. professionals.
- India is now the third-largest source of immigrants to Australia, after the UK and New Zealand and the second-largest source of skilled professionals.
Way Forward:
- The cooperation and coordination between the two countries have seen exponential momentum in recent years. The shared values, interests, geography, and objectives are the foundation of deepening India-Australia relations.
- India and Australia share a vision of a free, open, inclusive, and rules-based Indo-Pacific region.
- The India-Australia ECTA will enhance the already close and strategic relations between the two countries.
- It will also significantly increase bilateral trade in goods and services, create new employment opportunities, raise living standards, and improve the general welfare of the people of the two countries.
Pic Courtesy: Freepik
Content Source: The Hindu