At their foreign ministers’ meeting, Australia and India pledge to strengthen their economic and security cooperation

In a statement on Tuesday, Australia and India emphasized their shared commitment to a “free, open, inclusive and rules-based” Indo-Pacific, an area where China has been becoming more aggressive. They also pledged to strengthen their economic and security alliance.

External Affairs Minister Jaishankar stated that India is getting ready for a meeting of the Quad grouping, which consists of Australia, India, Japan, and the US, sometime in the future year at a press conference following his participation in the Australia-India Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong.

According to him, they spoke about the need to forward the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) discussions.

“We discussed how to move forward with our students’ and professionals’ greater mobility,” Jaishankar said.

The two presidents also had a detailed discussion on the situation in West Asia, according to the minister of foreign affairs.

When questioned about the Israel-Hamas conflict at the press conference, Jaishankar discussed India’s stance and said that the “very complex and challenging situation” has many facets.

The first is undoubtedly the terrorist attack on October 7. As a country and as a global society, we believe that we must always be adamant about our position on terrorism and should never compromise. As a result, there is that basket and the hostage situation related to it, Jaishankar said.

The second set of problems is the current humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. The urgent need for humanitarian aid and the respect for international humanitarian law in that area. The rights and future of Palestinians are the subject of the third group of problems. There must be a fix for it as well. According to us and a lot of other nations, there is only a two-state solution that will provide that answer, he said.

“We need to figure out a method that takes care of all these things,” Jaishnkar said.

He said that the entire strategic alliance between Australia and India has “real momentum.”

Among other topics, we spoke about and emphasized today how crucial it is to forward the “Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement” (CECA) discussions. We discussed how to go ahead with giving our students and professionals more mobility,” he said.

Jaishankar said, “We are both committed to building more trustworthy, dependable, and resilient supply chains in the Indo-Pacific region for broader and inclusive growth.”

An detailed debate on security problems was undertaken as part of the 2+2 conversation and today’s talk, he added.

“With Australia, we had rising convergences. Fundamentally, it is a common dedication to an Indo-Pacific area that is free, open, inclusive, prosperous, and governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, according to Jaishankar.

He said that the two presidents also spoke about radicalism, terrorism, and extremism.

As QUAD partners and liberal countries, we would keep pursuing an international system based on norms. In addition to advancing connectivity, development, and security for everyone, we will uphold each state’s territorial integrity and sovereignty and support freedom of passage in international seas, Jaishankar said.

In order to address “exceptional challenges” in the Indo-Pacific region and throughout the world, India and Australia resolved on Monday to deepen their strategic alliance, with an emphasis on defense cooperation.

The two countries also emphasized the need of further boosting cooperation in information sharing and marine domain awareness during the second India and Australia 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue.

As part of the 2+2 ministerial conversation, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong met with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.