Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia for the third annual bilateral summit reflected a clear diplomatic message—India’s Indo-Pacific strategy is increasingly centred on building resilient partnerships with trusted regional powers.
The visit marked a significant strategic milestone, culminating in a comprehensive roadmap to elevate the bilateral relationship into a long-term regional partnership. Complementing the summit’s outcomes, industry too played an active role in advancing the bilateral economic agenda.
Coinciding with the visit, the India-Australia CEO Forum was convened at Melbourne. It brought together business leaders to deliberate on priority areas including education, investment, energy, resources and critical minerals, digital economy and agri-tech. The recommendations from these discussions were consolidated into a joint communiqué that was submitted to the two PMs.
The strategic depth of the relationship has built upon decades of strong people-to-people connections. The Indian diaspora in Australia comprises over 9.75 lakh people, with over 1.3 lakh students enrolled in Australian educational institutions as of August 2025. These enduring societal links have provided a strong foundation for bilateral relations to thrive.
The summit demonstrated that the relationship has matured well beyond its traditional pillars of education and cricket. Today, it spans defence, maritime security, critical minerals, advanced manufacturing, cyber technologies, energy security, space cooperation, higher education and supply chains.
This expanding agenda reflects a deeper strategic convergence between the two countries. In an era marked by geopolitical competition, technological disruption and economic fragmentation, both countries’ recognise that prosperity and security are increasingly connected.
Australia has emerged as one of India’s most consequential strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific. As a Quad member, a trusted supplier of critical minerals, reliable energy partner and champion of a rules-based maritime order, Australia has a pivotal place in India’s regional calculus. Similarly, India has also become central to Australia’s vision of diversifying economic partnerships, strengthening regional resilience and balancing strategic risks in the Indo-Pacific.
The most significant outcome was the Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation, replacing the 2009 security declaration with a far more ambitious framework.
Together with the new memorandum of understanding between the Indian Coast Guard and Australia’s Maritime Border Command, these initiatives strengthened the architecture for maritime domain awareness, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and coordinated responses across the Indian Ocean.
The agreement significantly broadens defence collaboration by focusing on military interoperability, maritime security, defence industrial cooperation, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and cooperation through regional groupings such as the Quad, ASEAN, the Indian Ocean Rim Association and the Pacific Islands Forum.
Equally significant was the launch of the Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains. It takes cooperation beyond research collaboration to include resilient semiconductor supply chains, trusted digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, biotechnology and defence innovation. The framework also positions India and Australia as partners in shaping technology governance rather than adapting to standards established elsewhere.
Economic security emerged as another pillar. India is already Australia’s fifth largest trading partner with two-way trade in goods valued at over $24 billion in 2025-26. At the summit, both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to concluding a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement, building upon the gains of the economic cooperation and trade agreement. Greater emphasis was placed on reducing non-tariff barriers, encouraging greater investment flows and strengthening business-to-business engagement.
Critical minerals cooperation deserves particular attention. Secure access to lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements has become a strategic necessity today. Australia’s resource base complements India’s expanding manufacturing ambitions. The summit’s focus on long-term offtake arrangements, joint processing capabilities, geological collaboration and supply chain resilience lays the foundation for a partnership that extends well beyond commodity trade into value addition and advanced manufacturing.
Energy cooperation has similarly secured strategic importance. Against the backdrop of continuing geopolitical instability and disruptions in global energy markets, the Joint Statement on Energy Security echoed a pragmatic approach that balances energy transition with energy security. Australia remains a dependable supplier of LNG, coal and uranium, while both countries are expanding collaboration on renewable energy, rooftop solar deployment, critical minerals and emerging low-carbon fuels. The operationalisation of administrative arrangements for Australian uranium exports further diversifies India’s clean energy options while strengthening long-term energy resilience.
Finally, education, skills and innovation continue to support the social dimension of the bilateral relationship. The approval of Australian university campuses in India, the establishment of a National Centre of Mining Equipment, Technology and Services at National Skill Training Institute, Bhubaneswar, expanded vocational partnerships and growing research collaborations illustrate how human capital cooperation is evolving alongside strategic convergence.
Significantly, the summit also reasserted shared positions on free, open and rules-based trade in the Indo-Pacific, support for ASEAN centrality, the Quad, Indian Ocean Rim Association, Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative and reform of multilateral institutions.
For Indian industry, the expanding partnership offers opportunities that extend beyond trade. The complementarities between ‘Make in India’ and Australia’s ‘Future Made in Australia’ agenda create significant potential for co-investment in advanced manufacturing, clean technologies, mining services, digital innovation and defence production. To fully realise these opportunities, industry must play a larger role alongside governments. Three priorities deserve attention.
First, India and Australia may consider establishing dedicated industry-led value chain partnerships in critical minerals, semiconductors, defence manufacturing and clean energy technologies, enabling joint ventures, research collaborations and long-term investment.
Second, both governments should design faster regulatory pathways and institutional mechanisms to support cross-border investment, mutual recognition of standards and deeper collaboration between innovation ecosystems, universities and start-ups.
Third, greater emphasis should be placed on building resilient talent partnerships through expanded mobility for researchers, engineers, vocational trainees and technology professionals, ensuring that human capital keeps pace with strategic ambitions.
The India-Australia partnership is defined by shared democratic values and historical goodwill, further cemented by converging strategic interests, economic complementarities and common regional responsibilities. Through the outcomes of PM Modi’s visit, both countries emphasised the Indo-Pacific’s crucial geopolitical influence and reaffirmed the need for a trusted partnership to deliver resilient supply chains, secure technologies and long-term regional stability.
If the momentum built in Melbourne leads to prompt execution, as PM Modi put it, “Agenda focused like a one-day match, decisions as fast as a T20 and our partnership as long-lasting and deep as a Test match”, the partnership will be well positioned to become one of the Indo-Pacific’s most impactful strategic partnerships over the next decade.
Chandrajit Banerjee | Director General, Confederation of Indian Industry
(Views are personal)
(cb@cii.in)