India and Australia will see an increase in joint military exercises and interoperability between their armed forces in the coming years, and continue to jointly participate in several key multilateral exercises, according to Barry O’Farrell, High Commissioner of Australia to India.
In an exclusive interview with ThePrint, the Australian envoy said that the Quad, or Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, is not against any particular country, and that the grouping is focussed on addressing some “existential and critical issues” that the world is facing.
He also highlighted that India and Australia will soon sign an interim trade deal, followed by a larger Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) by 2022.
“I think we are going to see increasing joint activities and increasing interoperability between our two countries. We’ve had two very successful Malabar exercises. Earlier this year, we also participated with France in Exercise La Pérouse,” O’Farrell told ThePrint.
In June 2020, India and Australia upgraded their bilateral ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, and signed a Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) for enhanced defense cooperation.
“Given the challenges the world faces, India’s approach to plurilateralism, its approach to partnering with those countries which are like-minded, that share common perspectives, in order to amplify their influence in this region and across the world, is only going to continue,” he said. “And that will happen particularly because of the geostrategic challenges we are facing.”
The Australian envoy added that Canberra is “looking forward” to Indian forces participating in Exercise Talisman Sabre next year. The biennial exercise is Australia’s largest, led by the Australian Defence Force and the US military, involving large numbers of troops on land, sea and in the air.
The participation of Indian forces in this exercise was announced at the inaugural India-Australia 2+2 dialogue in September 2021.
Explaining the need for more joint military exercises, O’Farrell said these were needed so that “countries are able to operate more effectively together”.
“It’s about ensuring that when we do come together and undertake these exercises, we know how the other partners operate, and that means we can work closely together,” he added.
This year, the Malabar maritime exercise took place in two phases — August and October — with participation from the navies of India, Australia, the US and Japan.
“This is going to be the Indian century. We are seeing the strategic power shift from the Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific,” O’Farrell said.
O’Farrell said Australia is “still expecting” that an interim trade agreement will be signed between India and Australia, which will later be upgraded to a much larger CECA that will also include investments.
Source: ThePrint
