Prime Minister’s visit to Australia

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• India-Australia Relation
• Strategic Relationship between India-Australia
• Economic and Trade Relationship between India-Australia
• Civil Nuclear Cooperation between India-Australia
• Defence Cooperation between India-Australia
• Repatriation of Indian Cultural Artifacts
• Indian Community in Australia
• News Summary: Prime Minister’s visit to Australia
• Key highlights of the Prime Minister’s visit to Australia

 

Why in news?

• For the last leg of his three-country visit, PM Modi paid a state visit to Australia.
  • He visited Japan and Papua New Guinea before visiting Australia.

 

India-Australia Relation

• India and Australia established diplomatic relations in the pre-Independence period, with the establishment of India Trade Office in Sydney in 1941.

 

Strategic Relationship between India-Australia

• In 2009, India and Australia established a ‘Strategic Partnership’, including a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation.
• This cooperation has been further elevated to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) in 2020.
• The Australian foreign policy blueprint released in November 2017 sees India in the front rank of Australia’s international partnerships.
• In order to pursue the CSP, Foreign and Defence Ministers of both countries agreed to meet in a ‘2+2’ format biennially.

 

Economic and Trade Relationship between India-Australia

• As part of its efforts to develop strong economic relationship with India, the Australian Government commissioned the India Economic Strategy to 2035 in July 2018.
  • This was done to define a pathway for Australia to unlock opportunities offered by Indian Economic growth.
• Bilateral Trade:
  • Australia is the 13th largest trading partner of India in 2022-23. While exports stood at USD 6.95 billion, imports from that country in the last fiscal aggregated at USD 19 billion.
    • India is Australia’s largest export market for gold and chickpeas, the second-largest market for coal and copper ores and the third-largest market for lead and wool.
    • Key products of imports from Australia include coal, copper ores and concentrates and petroleum.
  • Total bilateral trade is expected to cross $45-50 billion in five years from $ 27.5 billion at present after the free trade deal comes into force.
• In April 2022, India and Australia signed an Economic Co-operation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which came into force in December 2022.
  • ETCA aims to double the bilateral trade to $50 billion in five years and ease movement of people, goods and services across borders.

 

Civil Nuclear Cooperation between India-Australia

• A Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement between the two countries was signed in September 2014 during the visit of then PM Tony Abbott to India.
• The agreement provides the framework for substantial new trade in energy between Australia and India.

 

Defence Cooperation between India-Australia

• During PM Modi's visit to Australia in November 2014, both sides decided to extend defence cooperation to cover research, development and industry engagement.
• Arrangement concerning Mutual Logistics Support (MLSA) and Implementing Arrangement concerning cooperation in Defence Science and Technology were concluded during the Virtual Summit held in June 2020.
• India and Australia conduct their bilateral naval exercise 'AUSINDEX' since 2015.
  • In 2018, Indian Air Force participated for the first time in the Exercise Pitch Black in Australia.
  • In October-November 2020, the Australian Navy participated in Malabar Exercises.

 

Repatriation of Indian Cultural Artifacts:

• A number of artifacts have been successfully repatriated to India in recent years. They include:
  • Bronze Idol of Nataraja from Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) (2019),
  • Nagaraja stone sculpture (2020),
  • two Dwarpala stone sculptures (2020).

 

Indian Community in Australia

• The Indian community in Australia continues to grow in size and importance, with the population of about seven hundred thousand.
• India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia.
• The number of Indian students continue to grow with approximately 105,000 students presently studying in Australian universities.
• After England, India is the second largest migrant group in Australia in 2020.

 

News Summary: Prime Minister’s visit to Australia

• PM Modi paid a state visit to Australia from May 22-24 as a guest of the Australian Government.
• During this visit, he held talks with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese and attended a community event to celebrate the country's dynamic, diverse Indian diaspora.
• He also met business leaders of top Australian companies and called for enhancing cooperation with the Indian industry in areas such as technology, skilling, and clean energy.

 

Key highlights of the Prime Minister’s visit to Australia

• New Indian consulate announced
  • PM Modi announced that a new Indian consulate would soon open in Brisbane.
• PM talks about 3 C's, 3 D's, 3 E's
  • Addressing the Indian diaspora, PM Modi said, "Earlier, it was said that the relations between India and Australia is defined by 3 Cs – commonwealth, cricket, and curry.
  • Then it was said that our relationship is defined by 3 D's – democracy, diaspora, and dosti.
  • Some people also said that our relationship is based on 3 E's – energy, economy, and education.
  • But our historic ties are much bigger than that. They are based on mutual trust and mutual respect.
• Renaming of the Sydney suburb
  • PM Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese renamed the Sydney suburb as ‘Little India’.
    • For this, PM Modi joined his Australian counterpart for the foundation stone laying ceremony of ‘Little India’ Gateway.
    • The Gateway is to be built in Harris Park, Parramatta, Sydney, inhabited by a large Indian community.
    • Harris Park is a hub in Western Sydney where the Indian community celebrates festivals and events such as Diwali and Australia Day.
• PM Modi highlighted India’s position in the world as the force of global good
  • PM Modi said India is always ready to help others whenever there is a disaster.
  • He also hailed India as the mother of democracy, as well as a bright spot in the global economy.
• PM Modi lauded India’s banking system
  • Today, the IMF considers India a bright spot in the global economy.
  • The World Bank believes that if anyone is challenging global headwinds, it is India.
  • Banking system in several countries are in trouble today but on the other hand, the strength of India’s banks are being appreciated everywhere.

 

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Q1) Where is Australia located?

Australia is located in the southern hemisphere and is the world's smallest continent, as well as the world's largest island. It is situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, and is bordered by the countries of Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor to the north, and by New Zealand to the southeast. 

 

Q2) What is Malabar exercise??

Malabar Exercise is a series of naval exercises conducted by the navies of India, the United States, Japan, and later joined by Australia (in 2020). The exercise is named after the Malabar coast of India, where the first exercise of the series was conducted in 1992 between India and the United States.

 

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Source: India-Australia ties based on mutual trust and respect, says PM Modi | MEA | Times of India | The Hindu | Indian Express