Highlights
- India is Australia's eighth-largest trading partner with two-way trade valued at over $30 billion in 2018-19
- After China, Singapore and Indonesia, India is the fourth country, Australia has signed the CSP with
- Two defence deals with signed with India during the virtual summit
Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said the Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s first virtual summit with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Thursday was ‘groundbreaking’.
“It was very important on a number of levels, in times of uncertainty particularly at this moment, it is important that the business of government between friends and partners continue and I think, that’s why holding this groundbreaking summit at such an unprecedented time was so important. And it is wonderful to see Australia and India are both committed to maintaining momentum,” Minister Reynolds told SBS Hindi in an interview.
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Defence Minister Linda Reynolds. Source: AAP
Minister Reynolds said India is a significant security partner for Australia and added the countries had signed two new arrangements - the Australia-India Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement and the Defence Science and Technology Implementing Arrangement.
“We have a strong shared interest in working together to support a stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” Minister Reynolds said.
The Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement will enhance military interoperability, enabling increasingly complex military engagement, and greater combined responsiveness to regional humanitarian disasters.
This arrangement paves the way for greater cross-service military activity, building on the success of our most complex exercise to date, AUSINDEX 2019, which focused on anti-submarine warfare.
The Science and Technology Implementing Arrangement will facilitate improved collaboration between our defence science and technology research organisations, both of whom have made important contributions in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“These arrangements reflect India and Australia’s strong commitment to practical global cooperation. We look forward to being able to recommence engagement in person as soon as circumstances permit.”
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the 2020 Virtual Leaders Summit Source: AAP
India is Australia’s eighth-largest trading partner with two-way trade valued at $30.3 billion in 2018-19.
PM Morrison said stepping up the relationship would build trust even further between the nations.
"In a time like this, we want to deal very much with friends and trusted partners, and this is a partnership which has stood the test time and again," he told the Indian PM Modi, via videolink on Thursday.
Follow SBS Hindi’s special coverage of first Australia India virtual summit
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