PM Modi hailed open market for facilitating free trade, people-to-people ties: Australian envoy

Australian High Commissioner to India while delivering the 2022 Australia-India Institute Oration in New Delhi took stock of the recent developments and achievements in the India-Australia relationship and noted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed open markets for facilitating free trade, greater investment, and stronger people-to-people ties.

Speaking on India and Australia in the Indo-Pacific, Farrell said, PM Modi called it a 'sacred duty' to create an order "where open markets facilitate the flow of free trade, greater investment, and stronger people-to-people ties," adding "it is something my Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has said will only be achieved by widening and reinforcing our likeminded webs of alignment."

The oration has coincided with a visit to India by the University of Melbourne, the first major delegation from an Australian education institution since the onset of the pandemic in 2020.

This comes at a time when in the past fortnight a virtual summit took place between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Morrison, the launch of the Australian Government's update to the India Economic Strategy took shape and two days ago, the trade pact between Australia India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement was sealed.

He noted, "Australia and India have accepted a shared responsibility to ensure a peaceful, inclusive and resilient Indo-Pacific," adding, "Current events in Europe serve to remind us of the profound strategic challenges and disruption the world is facing. The order that has supported peace and prosperity over decades is being challenged."

The Australian envoy mentioned that geography of both the countries "places us squarely in the middle of the world's strategic centre of gravity. And as the international system becomes more multi-polar, the region's resilience will be tested."

He also spoke on the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Australia while noting, "In June 2020, in PM Modi's first Virtual Leaders' Summit, we elevated our ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership or CSP."

"We also signed a series of high impact, practical agreements to advance strategic and economic cooperation across a range of areas where both countries can have an outsized impact on the Indo- Pacific. These covered defence and maritime security, cyber and critical technology, critical minerals, education, water, public administration and governance," he said.

Saying that progress has often exceeded expectations, the envoy added, "We have delivered an Australia-India Business Exchange to help build stronger private sector linkages between our countries and we have cooperated across the full gamut of cyber activities, with our Strategic National Security Cyber Dialogue supporting information exchange and timely cooperation on cyber threats."

Moreover, he also talked on the ties in other sectors and said, "In agriculture, a partnership on pulses and grains management and logistics was established to stimulate sustained government and industry engagement and we delivered the first India Australia Circular Economy Hackathon, empowering our best and brightest to tackle some of society's most pressing challenges."

( With inputs from ANI )

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