India-Aus Ties: Australian Envoy Philip Green Sees Defence, Trade Ties With India Growing | WION

Added: 2026-06-03

[00:00:00]Well, India Australia relationship have grown leaps and bounds and in just last 15 days we have seen significant visits.

[00:00:09]The visit of the Australian Foreign Minister, the Defense Minister visiting India, the Deputy Prime Minister in fact and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to travel to Australia.

[00:00:19]With me is His Excellency the Australian High Commissioner. So, welcome to VOA and let me just start about what has happened in last 15 days, your Foreign Minister, your Defense Minister. In fact, your Defense Minister was here and there was a extensive joint statement in which maritime was mentioned 11 times. So, if you can perhaps tell us what exactly is happening in this very growing defense partnership between the two sides.

[00:00:47]>> Sure. So, great to be with you Siddharth and you're right. It's a very buoyant moment in our bilateral relationship and I was delighted to have our Foreign Minister and our Deputy Prime Minister here in the last 10 days.

[00:00:59]Um, and their discussions with their counterparts were really about as collegial and constructive as you could possibly imagine. You know, we have a bilateral relationship which is going ahead very fast and it's a question of how much we can harvest at this important moment. Look, the discussions were across a range of areas but you're right to pick out maritime and let me get to the fundamentals of this. You know, Australia and India can collaborate in a lot of fields that relate to security and defense but where it really matters is where our geographies overlap. And if you think of Australia's position on the map and India's, it's in this area in the Indian Ocean, the Northeast Indian Ocean which is between us.

[00:01:43]Big spaces of water, neither of us can truly understand what's going on alone.

[00:01:49]It's important that we do this in partnership and our ambition to have a maritime domain collaboration roadmap is precisely in order that we become more partnerly and we work more together in that very important domain.

[00:02:05]>> Mhm.

[00:02:05]Are we looking at a perhaps overarching defense agreement in many ways because we have seen substantive conversation especially when it comes to cooperation in the Indian Ocean.

[00:02:18]>> Yeah, you're right. I mean, time has come for that.

[00:02:22]Our last major statement on defense cooperation was way back in 2009. A huge amount has happened since then and so it's it's right that leaders have challenged us to identify what our new level of defense collaboration looks like and so we are shooting towards a new and higher level joint declaration.

[00:02:46]Um that will be a signal to our peoples and to our systems about how important our defense and security collaboration is going going forward.

[00:02:58]We're already at a high rate but you know, when I speak to my ministers and when I hear them interact with their Indian counterparts, they're clearly ambitious for more and I think we'll be able to signal the need for that ambition very shortly.

[00:03:13]>> Mhm. What can Australia offer in terms of defense industry to India?

[00:03:18]>> So I think it's fair to say that it's fields other than defense industry where our partnership has been the strongest.

[00:03:28]We do an awful lot together in terms of joint strategy. As I said, the maritime domain is going to be very important.

[00:03:35]We've done quite a lot together in terms of exercising but and also in terms of joint training. We haven't written yet enough on the page of defense industry and and that's sort of understandable.

[00:03:49]Australia has looked for its defense partners to United States and to the major economies of the of the G7 in the past. And India I think has also been looking in different directions, but you know, as we deepen our partnership and even though I'm not sure that we'll always be ever be that that in the top tier of India's defense industry partners, we want to do more. That's why we've done roundtables on defense capability. That's why we brought an Australian delegation of defense companies here to India last year.

[00:04:23]That's why at the Raisina Dialogue we had a conversation around strategic tech and and defense tech. So we're up for this conversation and I think there are some areas where we can do a lot.

[00:04:35]But you're right that is not yet fully mature.

[00:04:38]>> Mhm.

[00:04:39]You said that Australia wants to do more with India. What are the tech capabilities of Australia that should interest India or something that you want to talk about?

[00:04:51]>> So I think the fields where we have expertise tend to be niche high-end fields. We're not we're not a a major producer, but we do have very unique capabilities in the fields of drones and sensors including in the underwater space. And when I look at what we have and what India has, there's a sort of natural complementarity.

[00:05:21]You know, we have innovation and cutting edge capability and India has scale and global reach.

[00:05:30]And an ability to manufacture at rates that aren't really possible for Australia. So you know, I think there is the basis for partnership and but trying to work out exactly where we go on that is is something that we're figuring for the next phase.

[00:05:44]>> Mhm. We had two high-level visits and now the Indian side is also expected.

[00:05:48]The Indian Prime Minister is expected to travel to your country. It has been announced as well. I think it's the best-kept secret which is out now everywhere.

[00:05:57]What is it like to be in terms of strengthening the relationship? How this visit will firm up the relationship? What are the outcomes as well? I know it's still far a month is still there, but what do you expect from the visit?

[00:06:13]>> I think well first thing we expect is that Prime Minister Modi will be very warmly greeted by the whole Australian population, but not least by the now more than a million people of Indian origin who make Australia home. Uh they've greeted him very warmly in the past and this will be another opportunity to show that that community has has grown, has matured, is deeply engaged in Australia, is making big contribution to our society, but will will welcome him.

[00:06:45]I think at the leadership level, the relationship between our two Prime Ministers is really at a very high level. I'll be very surprised if the visit doesn't demonstrate their natural affinity and collegiality.

[00:07:02]And then, you know, what what the what we are trying to do in supporting them is deliver new landmarks in our bilateral relationship that demonstrate how far we've come and what the next phase looks like. Uh and you know, I would like to see that in the field of defense. I'd like to see that in the field of culture and sport.

[00:07:27]I'd like to see that in the field of economics and business and investment.

[00:07:32]Um because we've we've got a lot of runs on the board already, but you know, we've really got two great batting sides with, you know, super, you know, first drops who are in in at the crease at the moment and I think we can really we can really make a lot of runs together.

[00:07:49]>> I think the best way to explain India-Australia relationship is in cricket terminology, but moving on to other elements, one has been counter-terrorism.

[00:08:01]What has been the key elements in terms of intelligence sharing?

[00:08:06]Australia was quick to condemn the Belgum terror attack. There was the dastardly Bondi Beach terror attack as well. Around that, what has been the conversation between India and Australia?

[00:08:20]>> Well, you're right to point to the way in which our leaders engaged with that. I think Prime Minister Albanese was one of the very first to reach out to Modi G after the Pahalgam attack and I received countless messages of support when we saw the the shootings in Bondi.

[00:08:40]Look, um, we have an already strong partnership in countering countering terrorism. Um, we are strengthening our capacities to engage in the intelligence field. For instance, our Chief of Defense Intelligence was here just 1 month ago strengthening what we do in in that field. I've got a high level of confidence that what we're doing at the moment is is good, but as we deepen and broaden our relationship there too, I think we may be able to do more in the future.

[00:09:14]>> Education is another element. You're opening campuses here. I've lost count of number of universities opening campuses.

[00:09:21]>> My count is 2 + 5. Two who are that are teaching another five that will open for teaching in the near future.

[00:09:27]>> So, how do you see this collaboration, cooperation with more universities setting up their campuses in India?

[00:09:35]>> So, my view is that the Australian India education partnership shouldn't be a one-way street.

[00:09:42]So, for the longest time, we've welcomed large numbers of Indian students to come to Australia. About 140,000 in Australia at the moment, and that will continue, and we're on track for that to modestly increase this year. Um and that's good. Uh but but the Indian family ought to have choice.

[00:10:02]And and the opening of branch campuses from Australia in India provides choice.

[00:10:07]It means that the Indian family can think about sending a son or daughter to Australia to study, or they can get the same quality of education from the same high-quality Australian institutions in India at a fraction of the price.

[00:10:22]So, uh for me, that's a that's a big step forward, but you know, we have other fields where we want to engage more deeply. You know, joint research programs, um articulated learning, where students can do 2 years of study in an Indian institution, 2 years of study in an in Australian institution, and get a degree from from both sides. Uh and the one that was that we want to do more on is the field of technical and further education, vocational education, which is going to be vastly important to get that large number of young Indians into the workforce and supporting this economy in the way that they they want to.

[00:11:05]>> Mhm. Uh there are some irritants as well. India was put in a category when it comes to student visas in January that basically creates problems for Indian students in terms of more scrutiny, more documentation. Any plans to review that?

[00:11:20]>> Well, it's not so much a category. Um it's true that we are requiring a bit more documentation from Indian students.

[00:11:27]Um and we want to make sure uh that we offer the highest quality of education to Indian students and we want to make sure that we support those who are genuine applicants to be uh, students in Australia, um, in the best in the best possible way. Um, we're seeing uh, continued uh, lively interest in studying in Australia from Indian students. I think those with strong claims to be able to meet our integrity capabilities have no particular problem. Um, and what what is really important here, Sudhir, is that we we we have uh, an education exchange where Indian students can be com- comfortable and confident that they will get high-quality education and we can be confident that the integrity settings that are important for our flows of Indians into Australia are both at the high order.

[00:12:23]>> Mhm. Uh, you've already mentioned about the diaspora aspect. How has this been the living bridge between uh, the two sides? And uh, also you have come up with various uh, visa um, categories where Indians can go work in Australia.

[00:12:38]Uh, perhaps if you would like to elaborate that and the role of the diaspora.

[00:12:41]>> Yeah, so we've uh, opened the door to uh, working holiday maker visas for Indians. So, young Indians who want to go to Australia, um, uh, have a holiday but at the same time spend some hours working, that's now available. Um, we've opened an opportunity for uh, early career professionals in India in particular fields of real interest areas like critical minerals and renewables to be able to spend more time uh, in in Australia. Um, uh, but in in truth, um, the the human bridge is being supported by the large number of Indian applicants who fit neatly into our global schemes.

[00:13:27]Um uh it's the fastest growing diaspora that we have in Australia. And And can I just say this, um they make an outsized contribution to our society. So, our our census statistics show that people of Indian origin in Australia are twice as likely as other people in our country to open a business. They're 1.6 times more likely to hold a master's degree or further degree. And interestingly, they're 1.5 times more likely to be involved in community activities, social and sporting groups in our society. And of course, the best example of that is the fact that of the four names that are most frequently registered for play by Cricket Australia in in Australia, two of them are quite familiar, Singh and Patel.

[00:14:18]>> So, a lot of connect there, but uh again, um as all substantive relationship have good elements and few irritants as well. In this case, it's the Khalistani extremism that India of course is worried about. There are shades of it in various countries as well, but how is Australia making sure that India's concerns on Khalistan are being taken care of?

[00:14:41]>> Well, the first thing Australia strongly supports India's territorial integrity and sovereignty. Uh and there is no support for the Khalistan movement broadly in Australia.

[00:14:52]Secondly, um it is part of our lively democracy uh that people in our society, including people who are visitors to our society and people who have come more recently, are entitled to engage in peaceful protest. But the emphasis there is on peaceful. Um what we are very careful to ensure is that uh Indian Indian properties, especially high commissions and consuls, con- consuls general, uh and the the people who work in them are safe and secure, and our security authorities have worked very closely with Indian authorities to make sure that has always been the case.

[00:15:34]>> Mhm.

[00:15:36]Uh moving on to the trade aspect, and trade is something that is part of conversation every diplomatic conversation.

[00:15:42]It's been 3 and 1/2 years since ECTA agreement came into force. Since then, how much has there been progress in terms of the trading relationship? And the wider, larger trade agreement, are there negotiations happening? Where do the negotiations stand? And do you have a deadline?

[00:15:58]>> So, let me answer the second bit of that first. So, there certainly are negotiations going on, very lively at the moment, and our teams are in close touch. Um we're not putting a deadline on this.

[00:16:13]You know, we want we want a good deal, not a quick deal.

[00:16:17]Um and the reality is that the the first phase of our free trade agreement, what we call ECTA, um harvested much of what our industries needed. Second phase, understandably, a bit more complicated. But, let me talk about the the first phase, because this is really special. As you say, that's been in force now for nearly 4 years.

[00:16:41]Just think about this. Over the last 5 years, India's exports to the world have grown by 40%. That sounds pretty good, right? But, over the past 5 years, India's exports to Australia have grown by 200%.

[00:16:54]So, India's exports to Australia are growing five times faster than India's exports to the rest of the world. And that reflects three things.

[00:17:04]It reflects the underlying complementarity between our economies. We produce different sort of stuff to what India produces, and much of what we produce goes into Indian supply chains. The second thing is the huge amount of effort that my government has put in to bringing the India opportunity to the attention of Australian businesses.

[00:17:27]We've spent something like 200 million Australian dollars over the past 4 years in upgrading our economic relationship.

[00:17:34]And the third thing is AFTA, which has reduced very large number of the tariffs. And that's why you're seeing this escalation of Indian exports to Australia. And indeed, I can give you different statistics about how much Australia is bene- benefiting from this.

[00:17:48]It it truly is a win-win.

[00:17:50]>> Mhm. A win-win.

[00:17:52]Uh let's move to the multilateral aspect. And recalling the foreign minister's visit, because foreign minister was here um for the Quad foreign ministers meeting. Now, the Quad had lot of outcomes this time around in terms of the maritime initiative, in terms of the energy initiative. The details remain little hazy. Any details as to what next when it comes to the energy aspect and the maritime surveillance aspect?

[00:18:17]>> So, the the maritime surveillance uh initiatives a very important one. What we've done is bring India into what was a tripartite maritime surveillance engagement between Australia, Japan, and the United States. And the ambition there is to deliver more information about what is going on in our region, not only to each other, but to our regional partners. So, we're about the business of supplying strategic, valuable uh activity and information to our our partners in our region. And and that area will focus that that new initiative will focus first on the Indian Ocean.

[00:18:59]Um I think the other one that I really want to draw to your attention is, you know, we've had seminars and discussions before about infrastructure. And there was the ports of the future initiative which was held right here in India last year. But on this occasion the quad foreign ministers have identified a particular port in Fiji as an area where we want to focus our attention. Uh and ensure that we actually deliver something important to a member of the Pacific family which is vitally important to us and I think that's a that gives you a sense uh of the the highly practical character of the quad's work in this season.

[00:19:43]>> Mhm. Uh but quad has few questions as well.

[00:19:48]There are many who think that quad is heading towards a dead end. Do you believe so?

[00:19:53]>> Uh I I really think the quad is uh alive and kicking.

[00:19:58]And we saw that I mean I saw that personally cuz I was part of the discussions and the the level of collegiality between the the four foreign ministers is really really very strong. It's of course the third foreign ministers meeting that we've had of the quad in the last 18 months and Marco Rubio, US Secretary of State, vitally important of all this. Um he will say uh all the time that the very first meeting he took as Secretary of State was uh to uh convene the quad at foreign ministers level. Um that level of commitment is shared by my foreign minister and I'm very confident shared by Dr. Jaishankar and Minister Motegi from from Japan. So um I I I think the the future looks very bright for the quad.

[00:20:44]>> Mhm. Looks bright and it had had three meetings in 18 months but no summit yet.

[00:20:50]And there are questions that why hasn't the summit been convened so far? I can understand that four leaders and four top leaders their schedules can be really tough to come across but when do you think that the summit will happen?

[00:21:03]Will it happen this year because it looks very highly unlikely so far.

[00:21:08]>> Nice try Sudant, but I think you know the way this works.

[00:21:11]I'm not about telegraphing when our leaders will meet. They will make the decision on that. They'll they'll announce it. But I I do think the key point to see here is how much progress we've made in the quad over the last 18 months. How much refinement and focus of the agenda and now getting to announcements which will show things that will benefit directly the countries of the Indo-Pacific that this is all about.

[00:21:37]>> Mhm.

[00:21:38]When the foreign minister came, she had extensive conversation with the Indian external affairs minister. West Asia crisis, I'm pretty sure must have come in the conversation.

[00:21:49]How do Indian and Australia working together? Because the biggest impact of West Asia crisis is the high prices of the fuel. And this is something that is I mean, you look at the Australian newspapers, you look at the Indian newspapers, it's the same story.

[00:22:04]>> That's right. I think we're all experiencing much the same. Increasing prices and focus on making sure that there are enough deliveries to meet the needs of our people.

[00:22:19]When I listen to what our foreign ministers say about the West Asia crisis, I hear many of the same words.

[00:22:28]A desire for de-escalation.

[00:22:30]An ambition that the ceasefire becomes permanent. That the Strait of Hormuz is open and free to maritime traffic at the earliest possible point. And equally, I see ministers talking about how we are each securing enough fuel at a reasonable price for our for for the for the for the people that they serve.

[00:22:56]And that's a strong shared interest.

[00:22:59]>> In fact, energy is something that is a part of the conversation as part of the West Asia crisis. How are both countries having conversation on renewables because you have a major leeway in terms of renewables. Also, when it comes to the foreign ministers conversation, I heard the Indian external affairs minister talking about getting uranium from Australia. So, what is the conversation around energy, renewables, uranium?

[00:23:25]>> Well, can I just come to the energy piece first because I'm glad you mentioned that. I mean, we each benefit from flows of of energy.

[00:23:36]Australia's been a long-term supplier of coal to this country. There have been deliveries of of LNG from Australia to to India.

[00:23:45]Australia purchases a proportion of its refined fuel from India and of course we're all talking about diversification at the moment and we all can see that between Australia and India there are not strategic choke points. So, I think that means that we're each thinking about how we can engage with each other more on the energy story. In terms of renewables, so um what we have done following the last annual leaders meeting between our leaders was establish a training institute in Gujarat for people who install and all the technologies involved in rooftop solar. So, the reason why we did that was that we heard Prime Minister Modi's call for 10 million solar rooftops in this country and my country happens to be the country in the world with the largest per capita deployment of solar rooftops in the world. So, we thought how can we make a contribution to this and we saw training as a way we can do that and that solar training institute is now ready to take its first students. We're very proud of that. But but one other thing I I really want to mention to you is what we call the tech commercialization challenge.

[00:24:59]For the longest time Australia and India have been exchanging uh technical capability in issues around renewables, but we've flipped this and we've said, "Let us use that to the specific benefit of industry." So, uh what we are doing under our tech community commercialization challenge is asking Indian industry, industries that are trying to do clean greener steel or trying to develop cheaper EVs uh or trying to develop better solar panels, and ask them, "What are their problem statements that Australian science might be able to help with?" And we are then giving those problem statements to Australian scientific and business organizations and seeing what the match is, and we're finding great matches between which will which will allow Australian technologies to be deployed in India for a greener future.

[00:25:53]>> Mhm. Uh my last question on the Pacific while there are the Indian side and Australian side working in the Indian Ocean, uh the Indian side is reaching out to the Pacific. There's a forum as well, the India-Pacific Forum, where India and the Pacific leaders meet almost sometimes annually, sometimes biannually. Uh how do you see India's forays in the Pacific?

[00:26:16]>> Well, we welcome India's increasing engagement in the Pacific.

[00:26:21]Um we are strategically aligned between Australia and and India, and we see that um many of the technologies and capabilities that India has developed can be appropriate technologies to be engaged in the the Pacific Islands. And then then we see um India's quite substantial engagement in the Pacific and and quick engagement. So, this is very important.

[00:26:47]Um recently when there was a uh uh a natural disaster in in Vanuatu, India was very quick there. When there was a massive mudslide, a million dollars came from India very quickly in Papua New Guinea to support. And we're working together, well we're supporting India in its engagement in countries like Fiji and areas like medical science. So, um we welcome India's engagement uh and we we are looking to provide pathways to ease India's engagement and make sure that that's effective and successful.

[00:27:20]>> Mhm. Well, on that note, thank you so much, sir, for this extensive interview touching almost every subject possible in this relationship which has several pillars from defense to education. Thank you so much, sir.

[00:27:29]>> Thank you.