'As PM, I was pleased to begin rehabilitation of Quadrilateral security dialogue'

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Monday said that as the Prime Minister, he was very pleased to begin to the rehabilitation of Quadrilateral security dialogue.

"As the Prime Minister, I was very pleased to begin the rehabilitation of Quadrilateral security dialogue that had been scuttled by my predecessor in 2008. I did that by deepening cooperation with Japan and especially by renewing the nuclear understanding between India and Australia," he said while addressing the "Vision For Free & Open Indo-Pacific."

"To be effective, a security dialogue should be based on something more than the common commitment to rules-based global order and common anxiety about the challenges to it," he added.

The former Prime Minister said, "a partnership between two democracies such as India and Australia should be easier to build than one between Australia and one-party communist state like China."

Abbott recalled that during his tenure as the Prime Minister of the country, China formally upgraded its relations with Australia to strategic comprehensive partnership and highlighted that Australia did not finalise the extradition treaty.

"We flew military aircraft through China's unilaterally declared air defence zone over disputed islands. Often glossed over reality is that its hard for Australia to be a meaningful strategic partner to a country that thinks it can bully its neighbours on the basis on conflicting territorial claims," he said.

Later while talking to ANI, the former Australian Prime Minister India has come a long way from being introspective to having its voice heard much widely on the world stage today under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership.

"I think it is a long time since India has been effective on the world stage as it currently is under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I think for a long time India was introspective. Yes, it was colossal of the subcontinent, but beyond its own region, India tended to take a pretty low key approach to things," Abbott said.