Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 8: The Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese arrived in Ahmedabad on Wednesday evening to begin his four-day visit to India seeking to strengthen the new momentum in ties between the two countries through deeper trade, investment and defence relations.
Albanese is in India for India-Australia Summit which will be concluded on March 11. It is PM Albanese’s first bilateral visit to India since the Labour Party government was sworn in May 2022, and the first by an Australian Prime Minister since 2017.
His visit comes days ahead of visit by the Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida, another member of the so-called Quad grouping that seeks to counter China’s growing domination in the Indo-Pacific region. Quad includes the United States and India besides Australia and Japan. Australia is due to host a Quad leaders’ summit in Sydney later this year.
“India and Australia share warm and friendly relations based on common values and democratic principles. The Strategic Partnership between the two countries was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in June 2020,” the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement ahead of Albanese visit. “Prime Minister Albanese’s visit is expected to provide further momentum to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” it added.
Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday, PM Albanese said Australia wanted “greater diversity in who we trade with – and greater variety in what we trade, meaning our economy is more resilient and more secure.” The two countries had last year signed a free trade agreement called the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), the first signed by India with a developed country in a decade. It has resulted in the immediate reduction of duty to zero on 96% of Indian exports to Australia in value and zero duty on 85% of Australia’s exports to India.
However, a much larger Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement has been stuck in negotiations for over a decade. Discussions began in 2011 but were suspended in 2016 as the talks were gridlocked. The negotiations resumed in 2021 but a deal has yet proved to be elusive. Australian Minister for Trade and Tourism Don Farrell is a part of Albanese’s delegation and the visit is expected to provide an opportunity to hasten the ambitious deal.
Bilateral trade was $27.5 billion in 2021 and India says it has the potential to nearly double to $50 billion in five years under the ECTA. Currently, Australia is the 17th largest trading partner of India and India is Australia’s 9th largest trading partner.
Soon after his arrival in Ahmedabad, the Australian Prime Minister visited the Sabarmati Ashram. He landed at the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Airport in the city and headed straight to the Ashram, the former home of Mahatma Gandhi and a place linked with India’s freedom struggle. Albanese was received at the airport by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who also accompanied the visiting leader during the Ashram tour.
The Australian leader also attended a Holi programme later in the evening in the Raj-Bhavan. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Ahmedabad later in the evening to join his Australian counterpart. Both the Prime Ministers are expected to watch the first day’s play of the fourth cricket Test match between India and Australia beginning at the Narendra Modi Stadium on Thursday.
Later on Thursday the Australian prime minister will leave for Mumbai. On March 10, he will take part in the Ceremonial Reception at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi which will be followed by a wreath-laying ceremony at the Rajghat. On the same day, Albanese will meet External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
He will also be meeting Modi at the Hyderabad House in New Delhi and President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhawan. During the visit of the Australian PM, India is likely to announce significant investments in the rare earth sector in Australia. KABIL (Khanij Bidesh India Limited) is set to make a significant investment in the rare earth sector in Australia, a move welcomed by the Australian government and the Indian government, particularly by the business community.
India and Australia are keen to cooperate in the field of clean energy and have taken several initiatives on the matter. India and Australia have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) on New and Renewable Energy in February 2022 which provides for cooperation towards bringing down the cost of renewable energy (RE) technologies, especially ultralow-cost solar and clean hydrogen.
Australia supports India’s candidature in an expanded UN Security Council. Both India and Australia are members of the Commonwealth, IORA, ASEAN Regional Forum, International Solar Alliance, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, and Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and have participated in the East Asia Summits.
India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia. The Indian community in Australia continues to grow in size and importance. As per the 2021 Census, around 9,76,000 people in Australia trace their ancestry to Indian origin, making them the second largest group of overseas-born residents in Australia.
