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India and Australia on Monday (March 17, 2025) agreed to further deepen cooperation and interoperability across maritime, land and air domains, including working with multilateral partners. Besides, the two countries also decided to focus on cooperation in maritime domain awareness, reciprocal information sharing, industry and science and technology collaboration aside from “exchanges including deployments from each other’s territories”.
This was agreed in the 9th India-Australia defence policy talks held in New Delhi. The Indian delegation was headed by Joint Secretary Amitabh Prasad, while the Australian side was led by First Assistant Secretary International Policy Division, Department of Defence, Australia, Bernard Philip. The previous edition of the talks was held in 2023.
“Both sides welcomed sustained progress in bilateral defence cooperation, including the growing frequency and complexity of defence exercises and exchanges. It included several first-time milestones, finalisation of key agreements and participation in each other’s major defence trade expositions,” a Defence Ministry statement said. The two sides also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.
The meeting reviewed defence outcomes of the second Ministerial Foreign and Defence Ministers’ 2+2 in November 2023, inter-sessional 2+2 consultations at Secretary-level in October 2024 and the second Annual Leaders’ Summit in November 2024, the Ministry said.
The two sides agreed on priorities and preparations for the next 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue to be held in Australia later this year. “Both countries also explored the possibilities of defence industry collaboration. They called upon the respective agencies on both sides for acceleration cooperation in field of defence science and technology collaboration,” the statement read.
India-Australia relationship has seen a transformation in the last decade and defence has emerged as an important pillar of the comprehensive strategic partnership.
The Australian delegation is scheduled to visit Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. in Mumbai and the Australian co-chair will call on Defence Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh.
Published – March 17, 2025 09:54 pm IST