Context: 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is currently on an official state visit to India.

Historical Perspective: India-Australia Bilateral Relationship

• Shared Values: India-Australia bilateral relationship based on shared values of pluralistic democracy, expanding economic engagement, and high-level interaction. 
  • Both countries have common traits such as strong, vibrant, secular, and multicultural democracies, independent judicial system, free press, and English language. 
• Development of Closer Ties: The end of Cold War and India’s economic reforms in 1991 strengthened ties. 
  • Growing tourism, sports, and increasing number of Indian students studying in Australia played a significant role in strengthening the relationship.
• Evolution to strategic ties and plurilateral cooperation: Over time, the India-Australia relationship became strategic and not just economic. 
  • Recently, they have cooperated on issues like international terrorism and promoting a rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific region.
  • The two democracies have taken their cooperation to plurilateral formats, including the Quad (with the United States and Japan).

Strategic Ties

• In September 2014: Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited India, and in November that year, PM Narendra Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to make an official visit to Australia after Rajiv Gandhi in 1986.
  • He also became the first Indian PM to address a joint sitting of the Parliament of Australia.
• June 2020: At the India-Australia Leaders’ Virtual Summit in June 2020, Modi and Prime Minister Scott Morrison elevated the bilateral relationship from the Strategic Partnership concluded in 2009 to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP).

China factor in India-Australia ties:

• Ties between Australia and China were strained after Australia banned Huawei from the 5G network and called for an inquiry into the origins of Covid-19 and slammed China’s human rights record in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.
• China responded by imposing trade barriers on Australian exports and cutting off all ministerial contact.
• India has been facing an aggressive Chinese military along the border, and both India and Australia have been assessing the Chinese challenge since 2013.
• India and Australia support a rules-based international order and are partners in seeking to forge regional institutions in the Indo-Pacific, which are inclusive, promote further economic integration, and can help manage tensions as economic growth shifts strategic weight and relativities.
• The countries’ participation in Quad is an example of their convergence of interests, based on shared concerns.

Area of Cooperation

• Economic cooperation: 
  • The ECTA, the first free trade agreement between India and a developed country in a decade, came into force in December 2022. 
  • This has led to immediate reductions in duty for most Indian exports to Australia and Australian exports to India. 
  • The bilateral trade, which was worth US$ 27.5 billion in 2021, is expected to reach US$ 50 billion in five years due to ECTA.

• People-to-people ties: 
  • India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia. 
  • As per the 2021 Census, around 9.76 lakh people in Australia reported their ancestry as Indian origin, making them the second largest group of overseas-born residents in Australia. 
  • To celebrate India@75, the Australian government illuminated more than 40 buildings across the country.

• Education: 
  • The Mechanism for Mutual Recognition of Educational Qualifications (MREQ) was signed recently to facilitate student mobility between India and Australia. 
  • Deakin University and University of Wollongong are planning to open campuses in India. 
  • More than 1 lakh Indian students are currently studying in Australian universities, making Indian students the second largest cohort of foreign students in Australia.

• Defence Cooperation: 
  • The 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue was held in September 2021.
  • The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) was concluded during the Virtual Summit in June 2020, and the two militaries held several joint exercises in 2022. 
  • Australia will host military operations with India, Japan, and the US in the “Malabar” exercises in August, and has invited India to join the Talisman Sabre exercises later this year.

• Clean energy: 
  • The countries signed a Letter of Intent on New and Renewable Energy in February 2022 which provides for cooperation towards bringing down the cost of renewable energy technologies.
  • During the Virtual Summit in March 2022, India announced matching funds of AUD 10 million for Pacific Island Countries under Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) and of AUD 10 million for Pacific Island Countries under International Solar Alliance (ISA).

News Source: The Indian Express