Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australia and India hope to finalize an ambitious and comprehensive trade deal by the end of this year that has been negotiated for more than a decade.
Speaking after meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi for a bilateral summit, Albanese said the two leaders had agreed to accelerate economic partnership and strengthen defense ties.
“We have also agreed to expeditiously conclude our ambitious comprehensive economic cooperation agreement as soon as possible and I hope we can finalize it this year,” said Albanese, who is currently working on a joint venture. three-day visit to India, said. journalist.
“This transformational agreement will unleash the full potential of our bilateral economic relationship, create new job opportunities and improve living standards for people in Australia and India.”
Last year, the two countries signed a free trade agreement called the Economic and Trade Cooperation Agreement (ECTA), India’s first agreement with a developed country in a decade.
However, for the much larger Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), negotiations began in 2011 but were suspended in 2016 due to stalled negotiations. Negotiations have resumed in 2021 but an agreement remains difficult to reach.
ECTA came into effect in December and eliminated duties on 96% of Indian exports to Australia and 85% of Australian exports to India.
Australia’s Trade and Tourism Minister, who accompanied Albanese on the visit, said on Thursday that $2.5 billion worth of trade had benefited from the ECTA deal in January alone.
In addition to trade, Albanese and Modi also highlighted the strengthening defense relationship between the two countries, after the two leaders discussed the increasingly uncertain global security environment.
A joint statement issued on Friday said the two countries “may continue to explore conducting aircraft deployments from each other’s territories to enhance familiarity of operations and improve maritime domain awareness”. .
The tense relationship with China has proven to be a catalyst for defense ties between the two countries. In addition to bilateral defense cooperation, India and Australia are also Quad Group security partners with the United States and Japan.
The joint statement echoes a similar statement made after the foreign ministers of the Quad countries met last week with a veiled reference to China.
Friday’s statement said Mr. Modi and the Albanese reiterated the importance of respecting international law to address the challenges of a rules-based maritime order, including in the South China Sea, and the their support for an open, inclusive, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. where sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected.
On Thursday, Albanese became the first foreign leader to board India’s first aircraft carrier INS Vikrant, after which he considers India to be Australia’s top security partner.
Albanese said he also discussed the fight against climate change, cooperation on renewable energy, education and key mineral supply chains during his meeting with Mr. Modi. This is the fourth meeting between the two leaders since Albanese took office as prime minister in May. He is expected to meet Modi three more times this year on the sidelines of multilateral events, including the Quad Summit in Sydney in May and the G20 Summit to be held in Delhi in September.