India's high commissioner to Australia says that Indian exports to Australia are up by 25%, even though negotiations for Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between the two nations are still underway.
Navdeep Suri, the Indian high commissioner has told SBS Punjabi Radio that there should be no controversy about absence of the Sikh Regiment from the Republic Day Parade on 26th January in Delhi.
Mr. Suri said the parade was a 'pious event' and there should not be any controversy over such matters.
Speaking about the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between Australia and India, the high commissioner said the negotiations are still going on and a definitive time cannot be given for the agreement to be signed.
"Even today the negotiations are going on. If there is no FTA in place it doesn't mean that we can't take advantage of this opportunity. Look at the trade figues of last year. There has been an increase of 25% in India's exports to Australia."
Mr. Suri said the liberalisation of police verification process will benefit the passport applicants. He said the foreign ministry of India has been endeavouring to reduce the time taken for police verification.
"Police verification is important because passport isn't just a travel document, but it is also an identity document."
However, he said, post-verification will significantly speed up the process of issuing passports and those who need to undertake travel on urgent basis will benefit from it.
