NEW DELHI — India and Australia on Thursday signed an agreement that will allow reciprocal access to each other’s respective military bases for logistics support and further strengthen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
The “arrangement concerning Mutual Logistics Support” was sealed during a remote summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison.
The deal comes amid a standoff between China and India along their disputed Himalayan border as well as strains in Sino-Australian ties following Canberra’s call for an international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Morrison was originally scheduled to visit India in January but was unable to make the trip due to bush fires that were ravaging his country. It also proved impossible to reschedule i subsequent months as the coronavirus spread worldwide.
The two sides eventually decided to hold a virtual summit — a first for Modi — which “signifies the strengthening of ties with Australia and its upward trajectory,” India’s External Affairs Ministry said in a statement ahead of the meeting.
“Both sides agreed to continue to deepen and broaden defense cooperation by enhancing the scope and complexity of their military exercises and engagement activities to develop new ways to address shared security challenges,” said a joint statement on comprehensive strategic partnership between the countries issued after the summit.
They also agreed to increase military “interoperability” through defense exercises via the mutual logistics support arrangement.
Regarding the vast Indo-Pacific — often referred to as the Asia-Pacific — the two sides reiterated their commitment to promoting peace, security, stability, and prosperity in the vast region which, they stressed, is vital for the world.
“As two key Indo-Pacific countries, India and Australia have an enduring interest in a free, open, inclusive and rules-based Indo-Pacific region,” said a separate joint declaration on the two nations’ shared vision for maritime cooperation there.
They have “a shared interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight in the Indo-Pacific region, and maintaining open, safe and efficient sea lanes for transportation and communication,” it added.
The India-Australia statement on maritime cooperation includes “euphemisms that focus on China and its aggressive posturing in the South China Sea,” said N.C. Bipindra, founder and editor of Defence.Capital, a defense and strategic affairs news portal.
China, which claims a wide swathe of the South China Sea, is engaged in maritime territorial disputes there with several Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam and the Philippines. The United States, Japan and some other countries have expressed concerns over what they see as China’s expansion, fortification and militarization of small islets that it controls in the resource-rich area and have cited possible threats to the free movement of international shipping and aircraft.
Beijing has consistently rejected such views and maintains that it poses no threat to the free flow of commerce and navigation.