India and Australia decided to deepen their economic and security partnership, stressing their shared commitment to a “free, open, inclusive and rules-based” Indo-Pacific, a region which is witnessing rising China threat. New Delhi and Canberra, which are also key Quad partners, discussed China’s growing assertiveness here on Tuesday. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong focused on various issues including the global challenges resulting from war between Israel and Hamas, Ukraine conflict and terrorism.
Diplomatic sources told The Daily Guardian that the two ministers delved deeper into the issues related to Beijing’s belligerence not only in the Indo-Pacific region, South China Sea and East China Sea but also in the Indian Ocean Region. Jaishankar participated in the India-Australia Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue with his Australian counterpart Penny Wong. The two ministers also discussed some issues to be brought up during the upcoming Quad summit to be held in New Delhi in January.
At an event in New Delhi, Wong made some statements about China’s growing aggression. Underlining the importance that the two countries are attaching to the issue of China’s growing assertive behavior, Wong on Tuesday said that Australia’s strategic ties with India are very important for the balance of power in the world amid China’s unprecedented military modernization. The Australian foreign minister said that China has been modernizing its military at a scale “never seen before in the world”. “China continues to modernize its military at a pace or scale not seen in the world for nearly a century with little transparency,” Wong said.
Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles a day earlier termed China as the biggest security anxiety for both India and Australia. He made this observation while speaking at India-Australia 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue in New Delhi on Monday. Wong also participated in the ministerial dialogue in this format. The 2+2 was attended by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and EAM Jaishankar from the Indian side. The statements from the two Australian ministers, in fact, underline the amount of concern that Canberra and New Delhi have about growing assertiveness of China in different geographies.
Addressing a press conference Jaishankar said India is preparing for a meeting of the Quad grouping – comprising Australia, India, Japan and the US – sometime next year. He said they discussed and highlighted the importance of moving forward on the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) negotiations.