Australia strategy will firm up ties with India: think tank

October 30, 2012 01:19 am | Updated 01:19 am IST - Melbourne:

An Australian think tank has lauded the government for adopting a new strategy towards an “unstoppable” Asia, saying this would open new facets in relations with India and turn out to be a positive turn.

Australia India Institute (AII) Director Amitabh Mattoo said Australia-India relations could eventually become an alliance based on common values and interests and the white paper on the Asian century would help achieve this.

He said the road map cited in the white paper which includes annual meetings between leaders, and recommendation to include Hindi as one of four Asian languages to be taught in schools, was a positive new turn in the relationship.

“In fact, I can’t think of a single area where India and Australia’s interests clash ... The opening of talks on the sale of Australian uranium to India this month meant there were now no barriers to expanding relations,” he said.

It is bound to be an asymmetric relationship — in terms of population, in terms of the scale of the economy — but Australia has had asymmetric relationships with the U.K. and the U.S. due to reasons of tradition and security.

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