Labor backs Indian strategic partnership

Labor foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong will visit India and China to discuss bilateral relationships important to Australia's prosperity in the region.

Australia's bipartisan commitment to India's importance as a strategic partner will be on show this week when Labor's foreign affairs spokeswoman tours the region.

Penny Wong will tell the Indo-Pacific Studies Centre at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on Monday that in the disruption of global affairs now going on, it would be easy for countries like Australia and India to keep their head down and be defensive and timid.

"This would be exactly the wrong response," she will say.

Instead, the two countries should team up to set an agenda that includes renewed vigour in dealing with climate change, combating protectionism and opening trade, and appreciating the continued importance of the US in maintaining global stability.

"India and Australia have a bright future together, one that we should embark upon both confidently and deliberately," Senator Wong will say.

"We should not allow the disrupted nature of the global environment blind us to the opportunities that such disruption inevitably generates.

"The only limit to our ability to capture those opportunities is our imagination, and imagination is a quality that India has in abundance."

Senator Wong's visit comes three weeks after Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull toured the subcontinent.

He also focused on the strategic importance of India as a growing economic powerhouse, as the country looks for new partners in the region.

Senator Wong will also visit Beijing, where she intends to discuss Australia and China's mutual interests in the region.


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Source: AAP



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