PM Modi, Australian PM Morrison To Meet, Likely To Finalise Trade Deal

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison will hold a virtual summit on Monday. India and Australia are likely to sign agreements with respect to trade, defence, education and water resource management.

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“Prime Minister Modi and I will discuss deepening our trade and investment relationship and harnessing new economic opportunities to support our mutual economic recovery and growth,” Scott Morrison said ahead of the meeting, according to a report by Australian news agency Sydney Morning Herald. “Central to these endeavours are strengthened cooperation in defence and security, science and technology, and critical minerals and clean energy,” Morrison further added.

The Australian minister of trade and commerce Dan Tehan said that a trade deal with India is likely. He said that the trade deal could be signed as early as this or next week, the Australian news agency said in a report.

Both nations are members of Quad and the Ukraine issue along with means to deter Chinese aggression in the Indo-Pacific will also feature during the discussions.

Ties between both nations have only grown stronger over the past year. Union minister of external affairs S Jaishankar met with his counterpart Marise Payne last month for the fourth edition of the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting in Melbourne.

The prime ministers of both nations have also met in 2021 in Washington DC on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders’ Summit and following that meeting they met once more in Glasgow on the sidelines of CoP26 Climate Summit.

The relationship between both nations have evolved over the recent years and in 2020 both nations became part of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership in 2020. Australia’s foreign policy lays great importance to strong ties between both nations.

To maintain the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the defence and foreign ministers of both nations  agreed to meet in a ‘2+2’ format at least every two years.

Australia is also core to India’s ambitions to use nuclear energy for a greener economy. Australia has backed India’s bid for admission to the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Defence ties between both nations also continue to flourish through military exercises like AUSINDEX and multilateral ones such as Malabar. Australia has also supported India’s membership of an expanded United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

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