AIR Spotlight: Strengthening of India-Australia Relations

AIR Spotlight is an insightful program featured daily on the All India Radio News on air. In this program, many eminent panellists discuss issues of importance which can be quite helpful in IAS exam preparation.

This article is about the discussion on: ‘Strengthening of India-Australia Relations’.

Participants:

• Skand Ranjan Tayal: Former Diplomat
• Sonu Sood: AIR Correspondent

Context – Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi visited Australia in the last leg of his three-nation tour – Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Shri Modi attended the G7 summit and Quad Leaders summit in Japan after which he had flown to Papua New Guinea for the FIPIC III summit. In Australia, Shri Modi held talks with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.

Strengthening of the India-Australia Relations-

India and Australia enjoy excellent bilateral relations that have undergone transformative evolution in recent years, developing along a positive track, into a friendly partnership. This is a special partnership characterised by shared values of pluralistic, parliamentary democracies, Commonwealth traditions, expanding economic engagement, long-standing people-to-people ties and increasing high-level interaction. 

• In 2008, India was granted an exemption by the Nuclear Suppliers Group  (NSG) which allowed it to engage in nuclear commerce with other countries despite not being a signatory to the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Australia had previously refrained from supplying Uranium to India due to its non-signatory status of the NPT. However, after the exemption was granted, Australia signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement with India in 2014 which allowed it to supply Uranium to India and since then the relationship between the two countries has improved by leaps and bounds. 

• In 2020, the relationship status was raised to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership during the India-Australia Leaders’ Virtual Summit.
• Both are members of the Quad, Commonwealth, Indian Ocean Rim Association  (IORA), ASEAN Regional Forum, and Asia Pacific Partnership on Climate and Clean Development and have participated in the East Asia Summits.
• India-Australia ECTA (Economic Comprehensive Trade Agreement) is the first trade agreement of India with a developed country in a decade which came into force in December 2022. The India-Australia ECTA will further strengthen the close and strategic relations between the two countries. It will significantly enhance 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.

Also read – India Australia Relations.

New Areas of Cooperation between India and Australia –

There was a time when 3Cs were used to define relations between India and Australia – Commonwealth, Cricket and Curry. After that, it was  3Ds –  Democracy, Diaspora and Dosti (friendship). Now it has become 3Es – Energy, Economy and Education.

• India and Australia inked the Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreement (MMPA).  
  • MMPA will further facilitate the mobility of students, professionals, researchers, academics and others, including through a new skilled pathway named MATES (Mobility Arrangement for Talented Early Professionals Scheme) specifically created for India.
• The two sides are working on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) and the pact will give new dimensions to trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. CECA is expected to be concluded by the end of 2023.
• Discussions on strengthening cooperation in the sectors of mining and critical minerals were held. It was also decided to set up a task force on Green Hydrogen.
• India and Australia will work jointly to create more trusted and resilient supply chains. India and Australia are partners in the trilateral arrangement (Supply Chain Resilience Initiative) along with Japan which seeks to enhance the resilience of supply chains in the Indo-Pacific Region. Supply chains should be resilient and countries should not be dependent or over-dependent on one country. India has the capacity and capability, manufacturing skills and resources to emerge as a very important partner in the resilient supply chain.

G7 summit and Quad Leaders summit-

• India participated in the G7 summit in Hiroshima as a guest country. The Prime Minister’s main objective was to sensitise G7 countries towards the issues of the Global South. This has also been the emphasis of India as the chairman of G20. Japan as the chair of G7 acknowledged the concern and agreed to look after the interests of the Global South. 
• The G7 summit included a range of topics – climate, health, food, security and technology. However, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, nuclear non-proliferation and economic security were the most prominent. Japan strategically selected the city of Hiroshima to promote its goal of nuclear disarmament and nuclear non-proliferation because it is the site of the first nuclear bombing.
•  The QUAD dialogue between U.S., Japan, India and Australia is emerging as a very important forum for keeping the Indo-Pacific region peaceful, stable and progressive. The countries share a vision for a region that is governed by accepted rules and norms, where all countries can cooperate, trade and thrive. In this region, challenges are emerging from China because of its expansionist policy in the South China Sea, and the East China Sea. 
• The Quad is getting more and more acceptability among the countries of the Indo-Pacific region. The Republic of Korea President Yoon Suk Yeol is also looking forward to cooperating with Quad. 
• Quad leaders discussed regional challenges and ways to deepen existing Quad cooperation including in the areas of climate and clean energy, health security, infrastructure, critical & emerging technology, cyber and space. 

Also read – List of G20 Summits.

India’s Changing Position in the Global World Order –

India is emerging as a leader in different areas – economic, strategic as well as defence areas. According to the World Bank, if anyone is challenging global headwinds – it is India. The country has been dealing with challenges with a high growth rate.

• The first challenge came from the covid pandemic and India’s economy also suffered, however, it dealt with it better than other countries.
• The Russia-Ukraine conflict has impacted energy, food and fertiliser. One of the major impacts of the war was a slowdown in the pace of economic growth, at a time when they were gradually looking to rise above the pandemic stress. However, the Indian economy showed extreme resilience to such external factors. Both the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have termed it to be a relatively ‘bright spot’.
• India is the fastest growing economy and is the 5th largest economy in the world and very soon will be the 3rd largest economy after the U.S. and China.
• The global banking system is under stress (failure of Signature Bank and Silicon Valley Bank). However, the Indian banking system is robust, resilient and stable. As far as the economies of South Asia are concerned, the economies of Pakistan and Sri Lanka are in great trouble. India is a shining star of stability – both politically and economically.

Read previous AIR Spotlight articles here.

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