Daily Editorial Analysis for 30th May 2020

Anchoring ties with Canberra the virtual way

Paper: II

Mains: General Studies- II: Governance, Constitution, Polity, Social Justice and International relations.

Context:

• it is tempting to view the virtual summit only in the context of the turbulent geopolitics of the region.
• In reality, New Delhi’s relations with Canberra have acquired such spread and depth today that even without the undeniable belligerence of an increasingly inscrutable China, the summit would still have had salience and similar gravitas.
• Almost all of Australia’s recent Prime Ministers, including Julia Gillard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull have visited India.
• Morrison’s visit to India, in January, was postponed because of the devastating bushfires in Australia, and now because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• When Mr. Modi travelled to Australia in 2014, 28 years after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s visit, in 1986, he electrified the country with his presence, including business leaders from the country in a panel discussion.
• Today, New Delhi ranks extremely high on Australia’s diplomatic radar.

Relations with much potential

• The idea of the Australia-India relationship has well and truly arrived; and while Australia’s population is roughly the same as the National Capital Region.
• The potential for a shared partnership extends well beyond India and Australia trying to deconstruct the inscrutable mind of China.
• The two countries have sought to reconstruct their increasingly turbulent regional geography into the Indo-Pacific and while grudgingly in the past, and often in fits and starts, seen the Quad (with Japan and the United States) as the most potent instrument to promote cooperation; not surprisingly, causing apprehensions in Beijing.
• it is expected that the ‘Mutual Logistics Support Agreement’ will be signed during the summit that should enhance defence cooperation and ease the conduct of large-scale joint military exercises.
• Australia and India conducted AUSINDEX, their largest bilateral naval exercise, and there are further developments on the anvil, including Australia’s permanent inclusion in the Malabar exercise with Japan.
• But beyond the realpolitik of strategy, is the managing of cooperation in areas that matter to the lives of the people of the two nations: health, food and education.

Pandemic control lessons

• Australia is one of the few countries that has managed to combat COVID-19 so far through “controlled adaptation” by which the coronavirus has been suppressed to very low levels.
• In terms of health and safe food as well the supply chains that facilitate their delivery, there are important lessons to be learnt.
• One of Australia’s richest businessman, Anthony Pratt of Pratt Industries, and first patron of the Australia-India Leadership Dialogue, recently described the promise of DTC-CPG (direct to consumer; consumer packaged goods) which could transform global supply chains.
• Here too there is much room for collaboration and new thinking.

Higher education

• The recovery of Australia’s universities, most of which are publicly funded and many ranks among the top in the world, is still in question, but they are proving to be resilient and pioneers in distance and online learning.
• Australian universities could well open earlier than most and emerge as a safer destination for quality education than their European or Ivy league counterparts.
• Till a few weeks ago, the prospect of teaching online a course on Contemporary India to Australian Students from the University of Melbourne seemed daunting to this writer.
• But with slides of Ambedkar, Gandhi and even snippets from the movies of Satyajit Ray, the enormous potential of online learning became obvious; the students were excited intellectually by both the robustness of Indian democracy, and the diversity of its experience as a federation.
• Although the course was on India, the enormous potential of young Australians and Indians working and building fresh order in a turbulent world became starkly obvious.
• The virtual summit, in this sense, could not have been better timed.

Strategic Initiative

• This could involve the cooperative use of their respective island territories in the Indian Ocean for strategic purposes.
• India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) islands are well-positioned to offer significant advantages for both countries.
• The strategic relationship between the two countries is currently underdeveloped, despite strong converging interests.
• One challenge in the relationship comes from differences in priority theatres, with India’s in Indian Ocean and Canberra’s in the Pacific.
• If New Delhi defines the Pacific as its secondary area of interest then for Canberra the Indian Ocean is its second sea.
• Capacity limitations on both sides mean there is a challenge in deploying resources in secondary areas of interests.

Background:

Australia and India have established diplomatic relations since pre-Independence period.

1941:  Consulate General of India was first opened as a Trade Office in Sydney in 1944:  Lieutenant-General Iven Mackay was appointed Australia’s first High Commissioner to India.

1945:  India’s first High Commissioner to Australia arrived in Canberra.

1950s:  As part of the Colombo Plan, many Indian students were sponsored to go and study in Australia.

1960s:  Easing of restrictions saw an increase in non-European Indians migrating to Australia especially professionals.

1992:  The Australia-India Council (AIC) was established.

2008:  Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) and the Extradition Treaty between India and Australia, were signed. (entered into force in 2011)

2009:  Upgradation of bilateral relationship between the two nations to a “Strategic Partnership “, including a joint declaration on Security cooperation.

2013:  Former Defense Minister A K Antony paid the first ever official visit by an Indian Defence Minister to Australia and held bilateral talks with the then Australian Defence Minister.

2014:  A Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement between the two countries was signed during the visit of then PM Tony Abbott to India. (came into force in 2015)

2014:  Social Security Agreement (SSA) was signed.

2016:  The Australian Parliament passed the “Civil Nuclear Transfer to India Bill 2016” which ensures that contracts to supply Australian uranium to India for civil use is fulfilled.

Importance of each other:

India and Australia have several commonalities, which serve as a foundation for closer cooperation and multi-faceted interaction. Both are strong, vibrant, secular and multicultural democracies. As Australia is in India’s extended neighborhood, it sees India at the heart of the historic shift in political and economic influence.

Australia’s Importance:

• Australia supports India’s candidature in an expanded UN Security Council. 
• Both India and Australia are members of the G-20, Commonwealth, IORA, ASEAN Regional Forum, Asia Pacific Partnership on Climate and Clean Development, and have participated in the East Asia Summits.
• Australia is an important player in APEC and supports India’s membership of the Organisation.
• Defence Cooperationbetween India and Australia has expanded significantly in recent years.
• India’s trade in goods and services with Australia was approximately US$ 15.6 billion in 2016. India’s exports to Australia stood approximately at US$4.6 billion in 2016.
• Australia is now the 2nd biggest overseas education destinationfor Indian students.
• In the mining sector, Australia’s exports include minerals and fuels, energy investment and collaboration on areas of joint significance.
• India, in its “Make in India” initiative can significantly use Australian expertise in the field of health, education and tourismas these are areas in which Australia has a comparative advantage.
• India which will have the largest working population in the world by 2027 and will need to up-skill 400 million people. Australia is well-equipped to assist with this huge need for knowledge-sharing, education and skill development.

India Importance:

• India is now Australia’s 4th biggest export market.
• Services exports to Indiahave also been growing rapidly with education leading from the front.
• Indian tourist arrivals have also been on the rise, contributing to Australia’s services exports to India.
• India’s globally-renowned IT industryis growing ever-stronger and there are solid linkages with Australia’s ICT capabilities.
• The Australian Trade Commission offers services for Indian businesses in identifying potential Australian business partners, sourcing Australian technology, products and expertise and in identifying Australian joint venture partners & investors.
• At almost 700,000 strong, Australia’s Indian diasporas, makes a significant contribution to Australia’s society and economy. They are the second highest tax paying diaspora,behind the British.

Present Context:

• The two countries are currently discussing a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) which will provide greater market access to exporters of goods and services and address the border restrictions to trade.
• India is also seeking to address its adverse balance of tradein Goods and Services through specialized market access for its products.
• India and Australia have recently emerged as close strategic partners in the Indo-Pacificwhich is evident in the number of high-level visits and the number of joint military exercises between the two countries.
• The shift in the relationship is primarily led by a common maritime security concernsdue to a rising China and its strategic consequences on the Indo-Pacific strategic order.
• The joint naval exercise, AUSINDEX, is a manifestation of this synergistic approach to maritime security. The third iteration held in April,2019 saw the largest deployment of Australian forces to India so far.
• Both are also part of other multilateral naval exercises such as Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) hosted by the US and the Exercise MILAN hosted by India.
• Other areas of cooperation include the establishment of a blue economy, infrastructure and connectivity initiatives, and strategic industry collaboration.
• Reports suggest that India and Australia are likely to sign a number of important agreements sooner including the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA), an information exchange agreement and a broader maritime agreement.

Maritime security cooperation, especially the information sharing arrangement, will help both sides to gain a better strategic awareness picture of the Indo-Pacific region. These have been identified as elements in the India-Australia Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation signed in 2009 and Framework for Security Cooperation signed in 2014.

Challenges & issues:

• China has been increasingly challenging the traditional areas of influence of both India and Australia, i.e., the Indian subcontinent (String of Pearls) and South Pacific Islands. China’s growing deployments in the Indian Ocean has thrown a challenge to India in its immediate neighborhood.
• On the Australian continent, China is trying to win over the Pacific countries (small islands such as Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands have become beneficiaries of China’s seemingly generous economic outreach) through cheque book diplomacy.
• However, amidst all the engagements of India with Fiji in recent years (Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), pledging US $ 1 million towards climate change assistance to Fiji’s COP23 Presidency in 2017) Australia has not expressed disapproval about India’s presence in the Pacific region.
• Likewise, Australia’s four-year, A$ 25-million South Asia Regional Infrastructure Connectivity Initiative (SARIC) has been well-received in India. As China challenges Canberra and New Delhi in their traditional geographies, the two nations have found in each other reliable partners.
• Both countries are likely to conclude the long-pending MLSAand a broader maritime cooperation agreement when Indian defence minister visits Australia in November,2019. Signing of these agreements would lead to greater interoperability and help in elevating the strategic partnership.
• The logistics agreement has been in the discussion phase for a few years now and Australia is reported to have given India a draft text in 2016. India concluded LEMOA with the United States in 2016, and since then has signed two such agreements, one with France and a second one with South Korea, just a few weeks ago. 
• The MLSA assumes greater importance in light of India and Australia’s limited naval capabilities. The scarcity of resources puts severe limitations on a country’s ability to project power in the distant waters, leaving its far-off assets at the mercy of other actors. In the case of India and Australia, such a limitation puts them at a disadvantage vis-à-vis China.

Conclusion:

• Virtual summits are no longer a novelty. Mr. Modi convened a multilateral summit to bring South Asia together to face the pandemic, and he spoke online with G-20 leaders on similar issues.
• But India’s first bilateral summit is with Australia; and it is no longer surprising.
• The convergence of interests and values has been patently obvious; but the time has also come to translate that potential into reality.