Jaishankar Touts “Strong Report Card” At India-Australia Framework Dialogue

Australia and India are working on plans to mark the fifth anniversary of the bilateral  Comprehensive Strategic Partnership next year.

As part of the 1.5 track strategic dialogue focusing on the big geo-strategic trends shaping the region, Australia will partner with the Asia Society in this venture. There is also the Raisina Down Under dialogue which will focus on the Indian Ocean.

Penny Wong, Australia’s foreign minister, announced a $1.6 million grant funding for six projects under the Cyber & Critical Technology Partnership. This will cover priority areas such as undersea cables, quantum tech and digital public infrastructure.

“India is the world’s fastest growing major economy and on track to be the third largest by the end of the decade. India is an essential partner as we diversify our trade links and secure our supply chains,” she said.

Dr S Jaishankar, describing the bilateral relationship as a “strong report card”, ticked off the $31 billion bilateral trade, negotiations towards a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement, two new consulates, India’s in Brisbane and Australia’s in Bengaluru and two Australian universities opening in India.

“This practice of meeting regularly has once again shown how useful, valuable our conversations are,” he said.

Khalistan had a distant echo in Canberra where, in response to a question by an Australian journalist regarding two Hindu temples being vandalised a week ago in the capital, Wong said:

“Our local members have expressed very strong views about that, particularly in the week of Diwali, it’s a very upsetting thing for peoples of the faith community and the Indian community more broadly.”

Jaishankar put it more bluntly, pointing out “Do look at the video (attack on Hindu temple in Brampton, Canada), they would tell you in a way the political space being given to extremist voices there (Canada). We believe in freedoms, we also believe freedom should not be abused.”

He faulted Canada for not providing specifics about the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar and of putting Indian diplomats under surveillance, deeming it “unacceptable”.

Clearly, the Khalistan issue will continue to dog India for some more time, but at least the fundamentals of the India- Australia relationship remain on sound footing.