India and Australia discuss ways to deepen defence and security ties

Amid the continuing military face-off between India and China in Bhutan, New Delhi on Tuesday discussed ways to deepen defence and security ties with Australia.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop met in New Delhi and discussed defence and security issues as well as ways to deepen regional engagement. Bishop, who is on a two-day visit to New Delhi, also met Defence Minister Arun Jaitley and called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Prime Minister and Australian Foreign Minister discussed “regional and global issues of mutual interest”, according to an official press-release.

Sources told the DH that the issue of India-China military face-off in western Bhutan had come up during Bishop's discussions with Swaraj and Jaitley. Both Defence Minister and External Affairs Minister conveyed to Australian Foreign Minister that India was using diplomatic channels with China to end the face-off.

Bishop, according to the sources, told Swaraj and Jaitley that Australia had since long been nudging China to stop pursuing aggressive foreign policy and adhere to international rules .

“We must work towards a future where relationships between states are predictable — the rules-based order is an asset,” Bishop later said delivering a lecture on Indo-Pacific at an event held by Observer Research Foundation. She said that “Indo-Pacific democracies” like India, Australia, Indonesia and others should work together for regional stability.

“China should be persuaded to use its strategic weight to respect sovereignty of states, and uphold rule based order,” she said, in response to a questio from the audience. She also noted that India's strategic rise was seen as peaceful and contributed to regional stability.

Bishop briefed Modi on the progress in bilateral relations since the visit of Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to India in April.

New Delhi played host to Australian Foreign Minister just a day after Indian Navy concluded a week-long exercise with the United States Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defence Force in Bay of Bengal – a war-drill aimed at sending out a message to China, which has of late been increasingly flexing its maritime muscles in Indian Ocean region.

“India and Australia need collective leadership in the Indian Ocean Region to ensure a strong rules-based order,” said Bishop.

Australia too was keen to send its warships for the Malabar Exercise in Bay of Bengal. New Delhi, however, insisted that Australian Navy should first hold more bilateral war-drills with Indian Navy before joining multilateral exercises. An India-Australia bilateral naval drill had taken place in Bay of Bengal in 2015. Modi and Turnbull in April decided that another bilateral drill would take place off western coast of Australia in the first half of 2018.

India in 2007 joined US, Australia, Japan and Singapore for the ‘Malabar’ naval exercise in Bay of Bengal. The drill had purportedly rattled Beijing, which had earlier that year issued strong demarches to New Delhi, Washington, Canberra and Tokyo accusing the five nations of ganging up against China.

Like New Delhi, Canberra too has been asking China to accept the ruling of the international arbitration tribunal based in The Hague that the communist country had no legal basis to its historic claims in the South China Sea. India and Australia have been underscoring importance of respecting the maritime legal order based on the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

Bishop on Tuesday lauded New Delhi's acceptance of the verdict awarded by the international tribunal set up under the UNCLOS to resolve India-Bangladesh maritime boundary dispute. She also referred to Australia's legal proceedings with Timor Leste to resolve maritime dispute under the UNCLOS.

Citing the instances of India and Australia, she said that all nations should try to resolve all maritime disputes, including the row over South China Sea, through mechanism stiputated in the UNCLOS.