Australian PM Albanese in India to discuss China, trade and cricket

Albanese, in his maiden visit as PM to India, was due to visit INS Vikrant, India's first homemade aircraft carrier, in Mumbai on Thursday

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived in India on Wednesday for a four-day visit expected to focus on shared concerns about China, deepening trade ties -- and cricket.

Australia and India, with Japan and the United States, make up the Quad alliance that is seen as a bulwark against Chinese assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region.

Albanese said Wednesday he would meet US President Joe Biden soon in the United States, where they are expected to unveil a nuclear submarine deal aimed at countering China's growing ambitions.

Relations between India and China have been locked in a stand-off on the nuclear-armed giants' disputed frontier since 2020 when 20 Indian troops and four Chinese soldiers were killed in clashes.

Albanese, in his maiden visit as prime minister to India and the first by an Australian premier in six years, was due to visit INS Vikrant, India's first homemade aircraft carrier, in Mumbai on Thursday.

Earlier in the day he and Prime Minister Narendra Modi were due to watch together a Test match between India and Australia at the world's largest cricket stadium in Ahmedabad in western India.

To ensure a large crowd at the stadium named after Modi, the ruling BJP has bought for party members and their families 80 per cent of the roughly 100,000 tickets sold, a local official told AFP.

In 2020, Modi and then US president Donald Trump held a huge rally at the stadium.

Modi and Albanese, accompanied by Australia's trade and resources ministers, were also expected to discuss efforts towards a free-trade deal following a recent interim agreement.

"India is Australia's sixth-largest trading partner, fourth-largest export market and second-largest export market for education," the Australian government said in a statement Wednesday.