Australia - India Relations

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Australia Mr. Anthony Albanese met on the sidelines of the 6th Quad Leaders’ Summit in Wilmington, USA. 

The two leaders discussed strengthening bilateral cooperation across a wide range of areas such as political and strategic, defence and security, trade and investments, education and research, climate change and renewable energy, and people-to-people ties. 

Both leaders renewed their commitment to strengthening cooperation in the multilateral fora and reiterated their commitment to take the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to even greater heights.

Prime Minister of Australia, Hon Anthony Albanese MP, visited India from 8-10 September 2023 to participate in the G20 Summit in New Delhi. He also had a pull-aside meeting with Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi. 

The Hon’ble PM Modi visited Australia in May 2023 - the second visit to Australia since he took office and his sixth meeting with PM Anthony Albanese. The leaders discussed collaboration in mining, critical minerals, and green hydrogen, opening more diplomatic offices bilaterally, the importance of the Indo-Pacific, the strong cultural bond that was highlighted during the diaspora outreach and Hon’ble PM Modi urging Australian businesses to invest in various sectors in India.

Prime Minister of Australia Hon Anthony Albanese visited India from 8th March to 11th March 2023 as his first State visit to India. 

Jason Clare MP, Minister for Education visited India from 28th February- 3rd March 2023 and signed Mechanism of Mutual Recognition of Education Qualification on 2nd March 2023.  

18th India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) held between India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, Shri Piyush Goyal, and Australia’s Minister for Trade and Tourism, Senator the Hon Don Farrell, to discuss next steps for further enhancing the bilateral economic relationship. 

Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF): The two countries have identified a number of collaborative research projects in areas such as agricultural research, astronomy and astrophysics, environmental sciences, microelectronics, nanotechnology, renewable energy, marine sciences and earth systems sciences.

The India-Australia Economic and Cooperation Trade Agreement (Ind-Aus ECTA), which is expected to double trade between the two countries to $50 Bn, came into effect on 29th December 2022. Explore More

Presidents of Australia and India along with counterparts of USA and Japan convened first in-person Leaders’ Summit of the Quad on ambitious initiatives that deepen the ties and advance practical cooperation on 21st-century challenges.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi met Anthony Albanese MP, Prime Minister of Australia on the sidelines of the Quad Leaders’ Summit on 24 May 2022. Both leaders reviewed the multi-faceted cooperation under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.  Shri Narendra Modi held a bilateral meeting with PM Anthony Albanese on 16 November 2022 on the sidelines of G20 in Bali.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison, former Prime Minister of Australia held the 2nd India-Australia Virtual Summit on 21 March 2022. 

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia held India-Australia Virtual Summit on 4 June 2020 where the bilateral Strategic Partnership concluded in 2009 was elevated to Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP). 

Australia, India and Japan launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) in April 2021 to create a virtuous cycle of enhancing supply chain resilience with a view to eventually attaining strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in the region.

India and Australia signed a MoU on Tourism cooperation to help give a fillip to tourism post-pandemic between the two countries.

Joint Working Group on Energy and Minerals: Established in 1999 to expand bilateral relationship in the energy and resources sector. In Jan 2019, Directorate General of mines safety (DGMS), Government of India and Department of natural resource mines and energy, Queensland Government, Australia signed an MoU on mines safety.

India is the 6th largest trading partner of Australia. India-Australia merchandise trade amounted to $24 Bn FY 2023-24.

FDI Equity Investment in India: India received $1.49 Bn in FDI (equity inflows) from Australia between Apr 2000 to Jun 2024. Over the last few years, key sectors such as infrastructure have attracted the highest investment from Australian investors.

Australia-India CEO Forum: The CEO Forum is a platform to highlight key issues that affect business entities and to identify areas of closer collaboration for the mutual benefit of both economies. It was held in March 2023 in Mumbai with the participation of leading CEOs of top companies from India and Australia to leverage the growing investment between the two countries.

India and Australia signed the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) to increase bilateral trade to $50 Bn in the next five years and $100 Bn by 2030.

During the 2nd Virtual Summit held on 21 March 2022, an MOU on Co-Investment in Australian Critical Minerals Projects was signed between Khanij Bidesh India Ltd. (KABIL), India and Critical Minerals Facilitation Office (CMFO) Australia. 

India’s main exports to Australia are refined petroleum, medicaments (incl. veterinary), pearls & gems, jewellery, made-up textile articles, while India's major imports are coal, confidential items of trade, copper ores & concentrates, natural gas, non-ferrous waste & scrap, ferrous waste & scrap and education related services. 

India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission: India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) was established in 1989 to enable interaction at a Government and business level on a range of trade and investment related issues. 

Commercial Dialogue: Australia-India Commercial Dialogue is set up to discuss trade and commerce relations and highlight key issues that affect business entities. The aim of this alliance is to identify areas for closer collaboration for mutual benefit of both economies.

The Indian community in Australia continues to grow in size and importance. Indian-related ancestry population is about 9,76,000 (Census 2021). After England, India is the second largest migrant group in Australia (2021). 

Both countries signed India-Australia Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement (MMPA), which will further facilitate mobility of students, professionals, researchers, academics and others, including through a new skilled pathway named MATES (Mobility Arrangement for Talented Early Professionals Scheme) specifically created for India. India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia. There is a constant flow of students and tourists from India.

The number of Indian students currently enrolled for studying in Australia is estimated at around 118,869 (July 2023). 

India is now the third largest source of immigrants to Australia, after UK and New Zealand and the largest source of skilled professionals for Australia. 

The growing significance of the community is reflected in the large-scale celebration of Indian festivals in Australia, especially Deepawali. 

1. In 2021 Census, India has moved past China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth in Australia behind Australia and England.
2. Punjabi language had the largest increase of over 80% from 2016 showing over 239,000  people using Punjabi at home in Australia.