Diplomatist Magazine Diplomatist March 2019 | Page 12

SPECIAL REPORT
The year 2014 was particularly crucial in
the bilateral relationship, as the reciprocal
Prime Ministerial level visits provided further
impetus to the relationship. During the Indian
Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s 2014 visit
to Australia a bilateral ‘Framework for Security
Cooperation’ was agreed, reiterating the joint
commitment of the two countries to regional
security. The two countries decided to extend
their defence cooperation to cover research,
development and industry engagement.
One of the major areas of defence
cooperation between India-Australia has been
the navy to navy cooperation given shared
maritime security interests as Indian Ocean
littorals. The Royal Australian Navy, one of
the most sophisticated navies of the world and
the Indian Navy which is the largest navy and
the coast guard present in the Indian Ocean
have converging strategic interests in the Indo-
Pacifi c and need to develop a close partnership.
The Indian Navy has successfully undertaken
exercises with the navies of a number of
friendly foreign countries including Australia.
These exercises have helped in strengthening
bilateral relationships, building professional
ties and streamlining inter-operability.
Navies of the two countries have
participated in various multilateral and now
regular bilateral exercises. In September 2007,
the Royal Australian navy’s (RAN) frigate
HMAS Adelaide and fl eet oiler HMAS Sirius,
participated in a fi ve-day multilateral naval
exercise i.e. ‘Malabar Exercise’, along with
Japan, US, India and Singapore in the Bay
of Bengal. Since 2003, Australia regularly
sends ships to participate in ‘Milan’, biennial
exercise hosted by the Indian Navy at Andaman
Nicobar Islands. In March 2018 the latest
(10th) iteration of Milan was concluded in
the Andaman Sea, and HMAS Larrakia of
Australia participated along with other foreign
ships. The Indian ships participating in the
exercise included INS Sahyadri, Jyoti, Kirch,
Kulish, Saryu, Kesari, Baratang and Bangaram
and INLCU L51. 2 Australian and Indian navies
also conduct regular passing exercises called
“PASSEXes”. Indian Navy also sends ship to
participate in the multilateral Kakadu biennial
exercises which is hosted in northern Australia.
Last year ‘INS Shahyadri’ participated in
India-Australia sign fi ve Agreements/MoUs during Prime Minister's visit to Australia. Prime
Minister Modi and Prime Minister Abbott witness the signing ceremony (November 18, 2014).
Australia and India
also have '2+2'
secretary-level
dialogue. The
inaugural dialogue
to discuss key
issues related to
their strategic and
defence ties was
held in New Delhi in
December 2017 and
the second edition
of the dialogue was
hosted by Australia
in Canberra in
October 2018.
12 • Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 3 • March 2019, Noida
the Kakadu Exercise at the Port of Darwin,
Australia.
The most signifi cant recent development
in the bilateral naval cooperation has been
the beginning of bilateral maritime exercises,
AUSINDEX. The Bilateral Maritime Exercise
between India and Australia began in 2015,
'AUSINDEX-15'; conducted on the east coast of
India, at Visakhapatnam. AUSINDEX 2017 was
conducted off the coast of Freemantle, Australia
in June 2017 in which three Indian Naval Ships,
Shivalik, Kamorta and Jyoti participated.
In addition, there have been goodwill visits
from time to time between the two countries.
During these visits, extensive interactions
between the ship’ crews and Navy Personnel are
held. One such visit took place in 2015, when
two ships of the Indian Navy’s Eastern Fleet
(INS Satpura and INS Kamorta) visited the
port of Freemantle, Perth, Australia. Similarly,
‘HMAS Success’ visited Chennai in 2016 as
part of a goodwill visit.
Air Forces of the two countries – Indian
Air Force (IAF) and Royal Australian Air
Force – also take part in friendly interactions
like the multinational biennial exercise ‘Pitch
Black’ hosted by Australia in Darwin. The
Indian Air Force had earlier participated in the
exercise as observers and last year for the fi rst
time IAF participated with its air assets. The
IAF contingent consisted of 145 air-warriors
including IAF Commandos team, Garuds, 04
X Su-30 MKI, 01 X C-130 and 01 X C-17 for
logistic support for induction and de-induction. 3