The Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Australia acquires enhanced salience in November 2023 when analyzed contextually against the failed November outcomes of US-China APEC Sideline Summit between Presidents Biden and Xi Jinping and visit of Australian PM Albanese to China.
Chinese President refused to oblige both United States and Australia on their "expected deliverables" in terms of Indo Pacific Security.
In the last five years strategic, military and economic cooperation between India and Australia has intensified considerably impelled by the increasing belligerence of China in disrupting Indo Pacific security.
China's ever-increasing belligerence in Indo Pacific seriously impacts the legitimate security interests of both India and Australia in the region.
Geopolitically, India and Australia besides their comprehensive bilateral security linkages are intertwined in the multilateral QUAD Security Initiative and jointly cooperating with United States and Japan in capacity-building of Southeast Asia nations like the Philippines to withstand the predatory China Threat.
QUAD Nations are committed to maintain a "Free and Open Indo Pacific both in maritime domains and Overflights" and maintaining stability in the Indo Pacific region.
Geoeconomically, India and Australia to cement their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership have signed a Free Trade Agreement which will take much of the slack of China restricting Australian imports. This FTA gives duty-free access to each other's markets and is a landmark agreement.
Geo strategically, the enhanced military exchanges between India and Australia need to be viewed in the context of the respective geostrategic weight in Indo Pacific security.
India dominates the India Ocean and with legitimate security interests in Western Pacific. Australia dominates the Southern Pacific and the Eastern Segment of the Indian Ocean. Like India, Australia has legitimate security interests in Western Pacific and Southeast Asia.
Needless to add that the palpable China Threat to India and Australia in their contiguous IndoPacific regions provides strategic convergences for both these Major Indo Pacific nations to forge a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to position an 'Existential Counterweight' to the China Threat, even if not so articulated officially.
The Inda-Australia 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue held in November 2023 ended on optimistic notes indicated by the official statements of both the Indian Ministers and the Australian Ministers,
India was represented by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar, Australia was represented by Deputy PM an Defence Minister Richard Marles and Foreign Minister Penny Wong.
India and Australia have already signed a Logistics Memorandum of Understanding granting access to each other's logistics facilities to their Navies and Air Forces. Joint military exercises have increased.
A defence Science & Technology Agreement also exists which promotes cooperation in defence technologies with each other.
Notably a Civil Nuclear Agreement permits Australian mining companies to export Uranium to India.
Analytically, it can be assumed that when such proximate Strategic Partnerships are forged and mature, then close cooperation between Intelligence Agencies and intelligence-sharing is a natural outcome. This would be truer in case of intelligence on China.
Superimposed over these are a host of Ministerial Dialogues, consultative mechanisms and increasing people to people contacts. It is reported that the Indian expatriate population in Australia is about a million now.
Contextually therefore, terms of future perspectives, it can be safely asserted that the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Australia is destined to intensify and deepen with evolving shared perspectives on Indo Pacific security and as Australian and American political and economic outreaches to China are rebuffed.
Independent of the 'China Factor' there is much that unites India and Australia in terms of shared military history, shared values and democratic institutions and their respective geostrategic and geoeconomic weight.
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