India, Australia may announce further steps for enhancing strategic defence ties: Envoy

Re-emphasizing that India and Australia already have significant strategic and defence ties, Australia's High Commissioner to India, Patrick Suckling, has said he expects some key announcements to be made during the bilateral component of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Australia.

In an interaction with media persons at the Australian High Commission here on Wednesday afternoon, Suckling said that at this point, he did not want to go beyond the joint statement issued by the two governments after Prime Minister Tony Abbot's visit to India in September, but added that for Australia, economic and military cooperation with India was on an equal footing, and not an either or scenario.

In the joint statement released on September 5, Australia and India reaffirmed their desire for having a peaceful, prosperous and stable Asia-Pacific region, underpinned by cooperative mechanisms.

Both governments emphasized their interest in building closer cooperation in the maritime domain.

Both Prime Ministers had then committed to strengthening their defence and security partnership, and welcomed the growing cooperation in defence, counter-terrorism, cyber policy, transnational crime and disarmament, and called for deepening the framework of defence and security cooperation.

Both governments also welcomed the proposed holding of a bilateral maritime exercise in 2015, and the closer engagement in defence science and industry.

Both Prime Ministers also commended the work of the Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter-Terrorism, including discussions on cyber and maritime security, and combating illegal migrations.

High Commissioner Suckling also said Prime Minister Modi's visit to Fiji after completing the Australian leg of his trip is a fantastic development, given that the latter was still a fledgling democracy in comparison to India.

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