New Delhi: India and Australia on Monday underscored the importance of freedom of navigation, overflight and unimpeded maritime trade amid disruptions in energy supply chains following the West Asia crisis as well as concerns over China’s increasing assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.
These issues figured prominently during wide-ranging talks between Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Australian Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles in New Delhi.
The two ministers affirmed the importance of enhancing cooperation with regional partners to help maintain a free, open, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific while emphasising the strategic importance of defence industrial collaboration and engagement between India and Australia.
Hours after the talks, Marles said at a media briefing that ramping up the overall trajectory of the defence ties will be an important component of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s upcoming visit to Australia.
“We are really pleased that we are near the finalisation of a renewal and strengthening of the Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation, and there has been significant progress on the Joint Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap, and both of those are really important in the context of the upcoming prime ministerial summit,” he said.
Marles said the two sides are exploring cooperation in underwater activity against a backdrop of “more grey zone activity” targeting seabed infrastructure across the world.
The Australian deputy prime minister said the rules-based order in the maritime domain needs to apply on the seabed too.
“That heightens the need for us to be cooperating, and that requires advances in innovative technologies. We’re keen to be working with India on all of that,” he said.
A joint statement unveiled after Singh-Marles talks said both sides welcomed progress towards strengthening the Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation, concluded in 2009, and discussed finalisation of a Joint Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap.
Following the talks, Singh and Marles announced that the two countries would begin developing a Memorandum of Understanding regarding the provision of defence articles and defence services as the next step in deepening defence industrial collaboration.
“The ministers discussed advancements in bilateral maritime security cooperation and efforts to finalise the Joint Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap,” the statement said.
It said Singh and Marles agreed to progress the collaborative maritime domain awareness activities by maritime patrol aircraft and explore opportunities to enhance undersea domain awareness.
“The ministers affirmed the importance of enhancing cooperation with regional partners to help maintain a free, open, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” according to the statement.
“The ministers underscored the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight, and their strong support for unimpeded trade in the region and other lawful uses of the sea consistent with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” it said.
Singh and Marles also underlined the strategic importance of India-Australia defence industrial collaboration and engagement and welcomed Canberra’s first defence trade mission to India.
They agreed to explore further exchanges, including through the Joint Working Group on Defence Industry, Research, and Materiel.
The two ministers welcomed the growing strategic convergence between Australia, India, Japan and the United States in the Indo-Pacific and reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing collaboration on maritime domain awareness to increase interoperability among the partners.
Singh and Marles expressed strong support for the Quad Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration (IPMSC) initiative, to be implemented initially in the Indian Ocean Region as well as through subject matter expert exchanges and tabletop exercises.
In a social media post, Singh described his meeting with Marles as “excellent”. “Together we reviewed the full range of bilateral defence cooperation and discussed ways and means to enhance it further. The India-Australia Defence Partnership is poised to make steady progress in the years to come,” he said.
