'We are keen on expanding our strategic partnership with India'

April 19, 2015 09:55 pm | Updated April 21, 2015 12:39 am IST

Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop was in Chennai to inaugurate a new Australian consulate in the city on April 15, 2015. She spoke to The Hindu’ sSrinivasan Ramaniabout a range of issues related to India-Australia ties.

Apropos, the implementation of the nuclear agreement between Australia and India signed in September 2014, you have pointed in recent interviews to the need for creative thinking to conclude the Administrative Arrangements for the nuclear fuel agreement. Can you please elaborate?

The Prime Ministers of our countries have both signed the civil nuclear cooperation agreement last year. The Australian government is determined to conclude the agreement as soon as possible. I believe there is political will on both sides to do so. There was a period when our previous government had cancelled an agreement on supply of uranium. So there were four key years lost, in terms of negotiations that could have taken place. Now we have shown our determination to conclude the agreement. There are some parliamentary processes that need to be concluded. The agreement is being considered by a joint standing committee on treaties. Our officials will be here on the 23rd of April and the final details will be resolved.

Since the last time our negotiators met, we have had access to the US-India text [on nuclear negotiations in January 2015] That is the kind of creative thinking that I was referring to. We do not intend to allow this opportunity to pass due to technical reasons. We will be looking to ways to accommodate Australia's legislative requirements and India's disposition.

Do you think there is bipartisan approval for these arrangements in the Australian Parliament?

The joint standing committee is made up of members of both the government and the opposition and so I can't pre-empt their position. I would think that since the Labour party changed its position to support the civil nuclear supply agreement, there would be support in the Australian Parliament for it.

When you mention the Indo-US text, are you specifically referring to the fact that there was an agreement on data sharing with US inspectors as part of the IAEA?

Generally, the issue of data sharing is something we want to continue to negotiate. Having provided access to the India-US text, we find it useful in this regard . Also Canada and India have come to an agreement in this regard. I am hopeful we shall be able to conclude our administrative arrangements as soon as possible.

Last year in November, there was a New Framework for Security Cooperation signed between Australia and India. There was talk of conducting maritime exercises between both the forces of the country in this year...

My understanding is our first bilateral maritime exercises will be conducted this year. Defence minister Kevin Andrews will be visiting India in September. I hope he is also coming to Chennai and we anticipate that this exercise will take place later this year. We are also looking at other multi-lateral exercises as its been sometime since Australia took part in the Malabar exercises and other exercises such as “Pitch-Black” and “Kakadu”. We see these as opportunities for Australia and India jointly holding exercises with other partners. We have a common interest in ensuring that our region is secure and we share the Indian Ocean region. So I think these exercises will be very useful. Interoperability with the United States and closer engagement with Japan is important for both of us.

China had not taken too well to the Quadrilateral military exercises in 2007. How would you mitigate their concerns about multilateral exercises?

We would like to invite China into these exercises as well. Australia has done that before. We have carried maritime exercises with China before. I think it is a question of being open and transparent about we are seeking to do and explain to China about the nature of our exercises.

Is there a possibility of expanding the nature of these maritime exercises from search & rescue exercises to more strategic ones - for e.g. allowing Indian forces to access the Submarine Escape Facility in Australia?

Obviously, we are keen on expanding our strategic partnership with India. The specific details, I shall leave to the Defence Minister and the respective defence forces. From a foreign policy perspective, we are keen on deepening our engagement with India both in terms of defence connections as well as economic ties (with strategic underpinnings as well).

India-Australia trade ties were to be expanded from $15 billion dollars to $40 billion dollars by 2015. What steps do you think could need to be taken in this regard?

Our two way trade with China is about $160 billion. Clearly, there is enormous potential to expand our two way trade and investment. There are some specific areas where our economies are very complementary. We recognise that with India's projected growth there would be significant demand for energy and Australia is an “energy-superpower”. We have abundant coal, oil, natural gas and uranium. While we also recognise that India has also its own reserves, Australia can provide high quality energy resources to India and that could be an area of deeper cooperation. There are many areas where Australia has strengths - in agriculture, in health services, in education. Likewise, India has great strengths in manufacturing - in the automative sector, particularly here in South India - and in Information Technology. I think there would be enormous benefits from a liberalised trading agreement between us at the goods level. But the exciting aspect will be in services and investment.

There is also the “Make in India” emphasis in India. Do you think that gels well with your vision of Indo-Australian economic ties?

I understand why Prime Minister Narendra Modi is promoting the “Make in India” strategy. Similarly, in the past, Australia has had “Make in Australia” strategies. I think this will complement what we seek to do. Obviously India needs to play to its economic strengths as much as Australia needs to do too as well. But we have recently concluded free trade agreements with China, Japan and South Korea. We want to ensure that our friends in India has access to the same markets and gain the benefits as friends in China, Japan and South Korea have managed to do.

How would you reassure Indian students and professionals in Australia considering that there has been a recurrence in attacks lately?

Of course, the government took the issue very seriously and we put in place a number of initiatives to ensure that Indian students felt welcome and safe in Australia working with our education sector and institutions. We hope that the students' experience in Australia is a very positive one. There can always be random acts of violence in any city, anywhere around the globe. Indeed, there is an instance where we are seeking to extradite from India, an Indian national who allegedly carried out an attack in Australia.

These tragic incidents do occur. But our government is determined to ensure that the Indian students feel safe. Indeed, we are now sending Australian students here to study in India under a new initiative called, the New Colombo Plan. This year, 340 Australian undergraduates will be studying in India. That is also an opportunity to develop friendship, networks and connections between Indian and Australian students to encourage two-way student exchange.

Australia is seen in India as a major sporting nation.

We, of course, took the Cricket World Cup back off you!

The MRF Pace Foundation (anchored in the past by Dennis Lillee) for e.g. plays an important role in training pace bowlers in India. Are there any other initiatives of this kind in the offing?

Indeed. We are keen on what we call, “sporting diplomacy” initiatives where we use sport as a bridge-building, friendship enhancing exercise with other countries. I know PM Modi has focussed on sport as one area where Australia can continue to collaborate with India, in terms of building skills, capabilities and capacities. We are friendly rivals on the sporting field, but great friends off the field. We are currently scoping opportunities to meet PM Modi's ambition of a sporting diplomacy relationship between the two countries. It already exists! Most of our cricket team are already here participating in the IPL. We have had some great connections between Australian sportspersons and their Indian counterparts.

Indeed, the last time I was in India was on the Saturday of Sachin Tendulkar's last test match. What an extra-ordinary day, that was, in Mumbai! We certainly have a great deal of respect for each other's sporting prowess.

Only in cricket though..!

Well...that’s the sport that counts, don't you think so?!

Australia has deployed troops in Iraq to take on the ISIS, which is indeed a global terrorist threat Considering Iraq is also a sectarian quagmire, has the intervention been fully thought out?

This is very clearly a global terrorist issue but also an issue that has very real domestic repercussions in Australia. As you are aware, we are deeply concerned that some young Australians are being attracted to the conflict in Syria and Iraq to fight on the side of this barbaric terrorist organisation, the ISIL/Daesh. We must do what we can to prevent Australians taking part in the conflict, putting their own lives at risk, adding to the miseries and sufferings of the people in the Middle East. In a deeply concerning way ...we want to prevent people coming back from there to Australia as hardened terrorists or extremists.

So we have a domestic national security interest in supporting the Iraqi government in its efforts to build up its capacity to defeat this terrorist organisation. So, yes, we are part of a coalition at the request of the Iraqi government. We are aware of the complexity of the conflict. The mission is for two years to build the Iraqi security forces' capability. It is not to go.. as they say .. “beyond the wire”. We are there to help them build capacity so that they can take back territory from the ISIS and defeat them. To do nothing is not an option.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.