The foreign and defense ministers of the two countries held bilateral talks in New Delhi on Monday
The second India-Australia 2+2 ministerial dialogue was held in New Delhi on Monday with the aim of deepening defense ties and strategic relations, including in the realm of trade and investments.
Representing India were Defense Minister Rajnath Singh and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, while Australia was represented by Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
Ahead of the closed-door meeting, the Indian Foreign Ministry announced that the leaders would exchange views on “deepening ties,” including in areas such as defense and security, trade and investment, critical minerals, energy, and climate change, among others, and would also discuss regional conflicts and global issues.
Jaishnakar, highlighting the key points of his meeting with Marles ahead of the extended talks, said they discussed “recent developments that influence the Indo-Pacific strategic scenario” and exchanged views on developments in the Middle East. Marles had arrived in India on Sunday to watch the cricket World Cup final match between India and Australia, which the former won.
The Australian foreign minister, who landed in New Delhi on Monday, said that the relationship between the two countries has never been “more consequential.” Ahead of the meeting, Wong and Marles visited the National War Memorial to pay respects to those who sacrificed their lives.
According to India’s defense minister as quoted by the ANI news agency, defense has become one of the most important pillars of the India-Australia strategic partnership. While addressing the 2+2 ministerial dialogue, Singh stressed that the partnership will not just be beneficial to the two countries but “for the overall peace, security and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific.”
Australia is one of India’s partners in the Quad grouping, which comprises the US, Australia, India, and Japan and focuses on issues related to the Indo-Pacific region, which is an evolving geopolitical construct that represents a security link between the Indian and Pacific oceans.
The visit by Marles and Wong comes less than two weeks after Jaishankar and Singh met their counterparts from the US. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited New Delhi on November 10 for talks in a similar 2+2 format that the two countries have held since 2018. Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific also emerged as the key topic of their discussions.
At an invite-only event on Monday, which coincided with the India-Australia talks, US envoy to India Eric Garcetti said that New Delhi and Washington had made “important steps” toward strengthening their major defense partnership. The joint statement issued by the two countries after the talks noted their efforts in promoting “resilient rules-based international order to safeguard a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific through the QUAD and other mechanisms.”
Indian media earlier reported that New Delhi will host the next Quad summit around January 27, just a day after India’s Republic Day, which honors the Constitution of independent India and is celebrated on January 26 with grandeur. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited US President Joe Biden to be the guest of honor at the Republic Day celebrations.
This year’s Quad summit was held in Hiroshima on the sidelines of the G7 summit in May. The meeting was originally scheduled to take place in Sydney, but was rescheduled after Biden postponed his trip to Australia.
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