New clarity to ties with Australia

While the invitation to Brisbane for the G-20 summit took Mr. Modi there, the decision to travel to three other Australian cities, when he had other pressing domestic commitments, was well considered.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia was long overdue, coming 28 years after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi travelled to the continent. While the invitation to Brisbane for the G-20 summit took Mr. Modi there, the decision to travel to three other Australian cities, at a time when he had other pressing domestic commitments, was well considered. His address to the diaspora in Sydney generated much enthusiasm among the often ignored but influential community, and his address to parliamentarians was well received. As a result, his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has seen relations being upgraded and imparted with clarity. The focus was much required. Even as India and Australia work towards a free trade agreement by 2016, bilateral trade between the two countries has lagged considerably behind the potential. The actual trade languishes at just $15 billion, against a $40 billion target by 2015, set during former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s bilateral meeting with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2012. Smoothening investment procedures for Australian businessmen even as Indian businessmen are invited into Australia to buy coal mines and invest in infrastructure for other mineral resources, must be taken up as a priority. Another worry: after many years of negotiations, the civil nuclear deal has been signed to allow Australia to sell uranium to India, but the last mile has not yet been reached, and the rising price of Australian uranium might make it unviable by the time the agreement is operationalised.

On the strategic side as well, the two countries have little time to lose. India and Australia may have declared a strategic partnership in 2009, but the relationship has been undefined and vague for the most part. The much talked about India-Japan-Australia-U.S. quadrilateral came a cropper, partly due to Australia’s hesitation in joining any front that may be perceived as ‘anti-China’. Mr. Modi’s bilateral meetings came after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s meetings in Canberra where China and Australia announced an FTA and enhanced strategic cooperation. The newly announced India-Australia strategic framework, that structures annual meetings between the leaders, defence ministers and regular exchanges between the armed forces and non-defence forces on counter-terrorism, piracy and cybersecurity, is a positive step that focusses on the shared strengths of India and Australia. It must not be seen as a ‘defensive position’ against any other country. Given the drift of the past, it is to be hoped that the upgraded framework will also give New Delhi a clearer line of sight to Canberra, and not the position at the “periphery of our vision,” as Mr. Modi said during his address to the Australian Parliament.