Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison will hold talks today on the occasion of the Second India-Australia virtual summit to lay the roadmap on new initiatives and enhance cooperation in a diverse range of sectors between the two countries.
The summit is expected to witness the largest ever trade pact by the Australian government in India with Canberra set to announce investments worth Rs 1,500 crore in the country across multiple sectors. An early harvest agreement is aimed at liberalising tariffs on the trade of certain goods between two countries or trading blocs before a comprehensive agreement.
As per sources, the two countries will sign MoU in the field of critical minerals, which will help increase India’s access to metallic coal and lithium in Australia and cater to India’s growing demand for electric vehicles and growing infrastructure.
The Summit follows the historic first Virtual Summit in June 2020 when the relationship between India and Australia was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. During the upcoming virtual summit, the leaders will take stock of progress made on various initiatives under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Recently, in September 2021 Prime Minister Modi had held a bilateral meeting with PM Morrison in Washington DC on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders’ Summit. PM Morrison also addressed the Bengaluru Tech Summit on November 17 of that year, where he announced the new Australia-India Centre of Excellence for Critical and Emerging Technology Policy and the intention to establish a new Consulate General in Bengaluru, while his Indian counterpart PM Modi delivered the keynote address at the Sydney Dialogue, on India’s technology evolution and revolution on November 18.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Minister for Defence Peter Dutton met their Indian counterparts S Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh in September 2021 in New Delhi for the First India-Australia 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue. Quad has become an important multilateral forum to strengthen cooperation on issues of mutual interests. S Jaishankar visited Australia in February 2022 to attend the 4th Quad Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Melbourne on February 11.