INDO-AUSTRALIA RELATIONS

Context:

The 8th India-Australia Defence Policy Talks (DPT) were held recently.

Indo-Australia Relations:

The historical ties between India and Australia started immediately following European settlement in Australia from 1788.
All trade to and fro from the penal colony of New South Wales was controlled by the British East India Company through Kolkata.
India and Australia established diplomatic relations in the pre-Independence period, with the establishment of India Trade Office in Sydney in 1941.
The end of the Cold War and simultaneously India’s decision to launch major economic reforms in 1991 provided the first positive move towards development of closer ties between the two nations.

Strategic Relationship

Australia and India upgraded bilateral relationship from ‘Strategic Partnership’ in 2009 to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) in 2020.

Quad Leaders’ Summit:

The first-ever Quad Leaders’ Virtual Summit held in 2021 saw the participation of Prime Ministers of India, Australia, Japan and President of USA.
The subsequent quad summits were held in Washington D.C in 2021 (in-person), in Tokyo in 2022 and again at in Hiroshima in 2023.

Bilateral Economic and Trade Relationship

As part of its efforts to develop strong economic relationship with India, the Australian Government commissioned the India Economic Strategy to 2035 to define a pathway for Australia to unlock opportunities offered by Indian Economic growth.
The India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (“IndAus ECTA”):
Under this the Indian IT companies will not be double taxed with effect from the financial year 2023-24.
India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission: India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC):
It was established in 1989 to enable interaction at a government and business level on a range of trade and investment related issues.
The 18th India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) was held on 11 March 2023 in New Delhi.

Bilateral Trade:

India is 9th largest trading partner of Australia.
During 2021, Bilateral trade in goods and services with India was US$ 31.1 billion, with exports of goods and services worth US$ 12.5 billion and imports of goods and services worth US$ 18.6 billion.
India’s merchandise exports to Australia grew 135% between 2019 and 2021.

India’s main exports to Australia are:

Defence Cooperation

The first-ever Bilateral Maritime Exercise, AUSINDEX 15, was conducted in Visakhapatnam and the Bay of Bengal in 2015.
An Australian Naval ship HMAS Larrakia participated in ‘MILAN’ Naval exercise in Andaman & Nicobar Islands in March 2018.
In 2018, Indian Air Force participated for the first time in the Exercise Pitch Black in Australia.
Navies of India, Australia, Japan and the USA also participated in Exercise Malabar.
INS Satpura participated at the multinational Exercise KAKADU in Darwin in 2022.
India-Australia Joint Military Exercise AUSTRAHIND 2022 was held in Rajasthan in 2022 between Indian Army and the Australian Army,.

Indian Community in Australia

The Indian community in Australia continues to grow in importance, with the population of about 9.76,000 (Census 2021).
After England, India is the second largest migrant group in Australia (2021).
India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia.
The number of Indian students continue to grow with more than 89,766 students presently studying in Australian universities.

SOURCE: THE HINDU, THE ECONOMIC TIMES, PIB

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