Remarks by EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar at the 5th anniversary of India– Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership

Deputy Prime Minister & Defence Minister, Richard Marles
High Commissioner Philip Green,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Namaskar, Good Evening

I am really very, very pleased today to be here at the High Commission sharing the stage with the Deputy Prime Minister. Richard, great to see you back in Delhi,

2. Before we get to the business of the day - as one politician to another - my heartiest congratulations to you and your colleagues on this very, very impressive election victory, and I want to say that we really appreciate your visit to India in the early days of your second term, just actually as you did as your first term commenced.

3. A decade ago, if I had stood here and told you all that Australia would actually be amongst our closest political friends, our strongest security partners, a country with whom we would have a Free Trade Agreement, whose University would be among the first to actually set up an establishment in India – in fact if I told you that we would have many more things to discuss other than cricket – I don’t think any of you would have believed me. And yet, here we are – not just with a transformed relationship, but actually marking 5 years of the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. And the reason for that – the ‘Mateship’ or the ‘Dosti’ - has actually been the strong leadership that we have seen from both countries, the trust and the mutual respect, and today we saw one example of that as the Deputy Prime Minister reiterated the strong sense of solidarity and support that we got when the Pahalgam terrorist attack happened, and I recall that the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, despite being in the middle of a very intense election campaign, actually reached out and called Prime Minister Modi to express those sentiments.

4. Now, as I said these last five years, we have seen an enormous deepening and diversification of our cooperation. We have established the practice of Annual Summits, in fact I think the last few years have seen more meetings between our Prime Ministers than probably we ever had in the 80 years of history before that. We have our 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministers’ Dialogue, we have Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue, we have a Joint Commission for Trade, for Skills, for Education, for Energy. So when we speak about a strategic partnership today – a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership – these are not just words. These are actually a deepening of our cooperation in so many domains which are expressed so productively, and in a way, on the ground , I spoke about the ECTA Trade Agreement, we have a Mobility and Migration Partnership as well, we have the Work and Holiday visa Program, the MATES Program, the Mutual Recognition of Educational Qualifications, and of course as the Deputy Prime Minister said really – a real transformation in areas like Defence, I would even point to energy, as another example. And not the least, we have today a million - strong Indian- Australian community , which is truly a very, very unique bridge between us.

5. So, I am here today to reaffirm, in the presence of the Deputy Prime Minister, a strong commitment to take this relationship to still greater heights, to look at areas like critical minerals, cyber, technology, space, sports as further domains of collaboration, and to work on mechanisms – most of all the Quad, but in the East Asia Summit platforms, the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the United Nations, even the trilateral grouping that we have with France.

6. So let me sum it up: I think these have been five great years in our ties. Many more to come. And Richard, good to see you back. Keep coming.

Thank you very much!