New Delhi, India and Australia on Monday stressed the importance of freedom of navigation, overflight and unimpeded maritime trade amid disruptions to energy supply chains in the wake of the West Asia crisis as well as concerns over China’s growing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region.
These issues figured prominently during wide-ranging talks between Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in New Delhi.
The two Ministers stressed the importance of enhancing cooperation with regional partners to help keep the Indo-Pacific region free, open, peaceful, stable and prosperous while emphasizing the strategic importance of defense industrial cooperation and engagement between India and Australia.
Following the talks, Singh and Marles announced that the two countries will begin developing a memorandum of understanding on the provision of defense materials and defense services as the next step in deepening defense industrial cooperation.
“The ministers discussed progress in bilateral cooperation in the field of maritime security and efforts to finalize the joint roadmap for maritime security cooperation,” a joint statement said.
She said Singh and Marlies agreed to take forward collaborative maritime domain awareness activities through maritime patrol aircraft and explore opportunities to enhance maritime domain awareness.
“The Ministers stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation with regional partners to help keep the Indo-Pacific region free, open, peaceful, stable and prosperous,” the statement read.
“The ministers stressed the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight, and their strong support for unhindered trade in the region and other lawful uses of the sea in accordance with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,” the statement read.
Singh and Marles also stressed the strategic importance of defense industry cooperation and engagement between India and Australia, and welcomed Canberra’s first defense trade mission to India.
They agreed to explore further exchanges, including through the Joint Working Group on Defense Industry, Research and Materiel.
The Ministers welcomed the growing strategic convergence between Australia, India, Japan and the United States in the Indo-Pacific region, and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation on maritime domain awareness to increase interoperability between partners.
Singh and Marles expressed strong support for the Quadrilateral Cooperation Initiative on Maritime Surveillance in the Indo-Pacific, which will be implemented initially in the Indian Ocean region as well through exchange of subject matter experts and tabletop exercises.
In a social media post, Singh described his meeting with Marlies as “excellent”.
“Together, we reviewed the full scope of bilateral defense cooperation and discussed ways and means to enhance it further. The India-Australia defense partnership is poised to make steady progress in the years to come,” he said.
This article was generated from an automated news feed without any modifications to the text.
