India wants bond with Australia to extend beyond business: Andrew Robb

Australia Minister for Trade and Investment Andrew Robb on Tuesday said that New Delhi and Canberra are willing to take their existing good relations to the next level, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants the bond between the two countries to extend beyond mere business.

"I was very honoured to have a meeting with Prime Minister Modi and we were talking about how Australia and India can take our relationship, which has always been strong, to another level because of the ambition that he has got for the country and because of the agenda that is exciting the world," Robb said.

"He wanted the relationship to be much broader than just business and we started to talk about cultural elements: the arts, theatre, music and sports. Australia is a great sporting nation and Prime Minister Modi said that one of the things that has always concerned him is that many Indians do not have the opportunity to play the sports that are available," he added.

Robb took part in the signing of a memorandum of understanding between Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited (IL-FS) and Sports Education and Development Australia (SEDA) for skill development and infrastructure in sports.

"I am signing today an MoU between an Australia sports education organisation and its equivalent in India. They will be responsible for preparing a lot of skills; at the same time, they will be looking ahead with the government and the private sector: they can develop the skills and infrastructure for all sorts of sports," he said.

Speaking of the great sporting traditions of Australia, Robb said that his nation's athletes have benefitted from a strong infrastructure in place, adding that Prime Minister Modi wants a similar structure to come up in India.

"India plays cricket very well and that has been a sport of great competition, but the Prime Minister and I spoke of sport more generally and he said that he would love to see many of the skills that we have had the benefit of in Australia made available to young people in particular across India," he said.

"Sport gives hope to one and all; it gives them fitness. It gives them teamwork and teaches them about losing. India is at the cusp of great things, and not only in business but in the social sciences, in education, health and so on, but also in sports and culture. This is a country with such a rich history and I do feel that if you look back over the past 20 centuries, India was part of the centre of gravity of the world for 18 of those. And now, I think, India and China are returning to that stature," he added.