India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar’s recently concluded visit to Australia on October 10-11 signals growing synergy between both the countries. This visit also continues the momentum that the India-Australia bilateral relations have been gaining in the past one decade. During his visit, Dr. Jaishankar held discussions with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong as well as Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles. He also attended the 13th India-Australia Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue (FMFD).

Dr. Jaishankar’s visit to Australia comes at a time when the Russia-Ukraine war has polarized the world. India has found itself under insistence from the western countries, although in subtle and indirect manner, to take a definitive stand against Russia. However, New Delhi has successfully managed to maintain its balanced position and pursued a stand concomitant to its national interests.

India and Australia have managed to come a long way in building trustworthy ties in a relatively short span of time. While India and Australia had established diplomatic relations even before India’s independence, the ties remained dormant for most part of the past 75 years. According to Professor Amitabh Mattoo, for nearly six decades, India-Australia relations were characterized by misperception, lack of trust, neglect, missed opportunity and hostility.

However, China’s rapid economic rise and growing assertion, in the last one decade in general and since the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative project in 2013 in particular, facilitated India and Australia to reset their ties and engage in various domains. Interestingly, before the reset, the India-Australia ties underwent ambiguity, specifically between 2007 and 2014, owing to their individual ties with China.

The bilateral ties received a boost when Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott visited India in September 2014. Following his visit, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Australia in November 2014 thereby becoming the first Indian prime minister to visit Australia in 28 years.

India-Australia relations have grown simultaneous to the Indo-Pacific Region taking shape as a strategic construct. China’s increasing strategic assertion and the need for rules-based order and freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific Region have been the principal areas of convergence for India and Australia. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), with India, Australia, the United States and Japan as members, is an important mechanism to give a democratic character to the Indo-Pacific Region.  

Making a statement on the occasion of Dr. Jaishankar’s visit, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that for Australia and India share the Indo-Pacific Region. She further said that both the countries have a shared interest and a shared ambition in a stable and prosperous region where sovereignty is respected. Wong considers Australia’s partnership with India as a critical part of shaping the region.

Greater coordination between the two countries at government and top leadership level has been crucial to realization of the democratic objective in the Indo-Pacific Region. Dr. Jaishankar summed up this development while addressing the Australia-India Leadership Dialogue in September. He said that the realm of politics and strategy has witnessed a sharp transformation. This is evident from the progress both the countries have made in their engagements. India and Australia have a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the 2+2 Dialogue mechanism and the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) that was entered into in April this year, to name a few areas.

Besides these, regular high-level visits have been the highlight of the India-Australia relations. The recent visit by Dr. Jaishankar was his second visit to Australia this year. Earlier in June, Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles visited India.

An important factor in strengthening of the India-Australia ties has been the readiness to work around the differences. Differing stands on the Russia-Ukraine war have not prevented both the countries to engage closely with each other. Accommodating diverse views has also characterized the plurilateral groupings of which India and Australia are a part of. On the sidelines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly India and Australia participated in two trilateral meetings – Australia-India-Indonesia and India-France-Australia. It is worthwhile to note that both these groupings had their share of uncertainties.

In case of Australia-Indonesia-India, Indonesia’s strained relations with Australia in the past as well as the former’s concerns over being projected as anti-China had stalled the formation of this trilateral. However, the fact that these minilaterals converge upon traditional as well as non-traditional security threats led to Indonesia’s readiness to be a part of the trilateral grouping.

Similarly, the Australia-France ties had deteriorated in the last one year due to Australia backing out of a submarine deal with France. Australia joined the United States and the United Kingdom to form the Australia-UK-US (AUKUS). This development led France to pull of the trilateral with India and Australia in September 2021. However, the revival of this grouping is a positive sign for the Indo-Pacific Region.

While continuing threat from China is a major factor for regional and extra-regional powers to cooperate, it also indicates democratic functioning among the like-minded countries that accommodate differences and divergent standpoints to pursue a common objective.

Dr. Jaishankar’s visit to Australia preceded China’s 20th Communist Party Congress taking place from 16 to 22 October. With President Xi Jinping expected to get a third term, China’s assertion would continue in the Indo-Pacific Region which calls for concerted efforts on the part of democratic countries to ensure rules-based order. It implies that in the emerging geopolitical landscape, cooperation between India and Australia would gain greater importance.

Mr Niranjan Marjani is a Political Analyst and Researcher based in Vadodara, India. He tweets at @NiranjanMarjani)