India, Australia To Finalise Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement This Year — Highlights

Australian PM Anthony Albanese informed that he and PM Modi agreed on an early conclusion of the ambitious Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, expressing hope to finalise it this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday addressed a joint press briefing with Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.

Source : ANI

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday addressed a joint press briefing with Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese after both leaders held talks for boosting overall bilateral engagement in areas of trade and investment, defence, and critical minerals.

• "Security cooperation is an important pillar in Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Australia. We discussed maritime security in the Indo-Pacific region today," PM Modi said, as quoted by news agency ANI. He further added, "Our teams working on a comprehensive economic agreement between our two countries."
• The Prime Ministers discussed the issue of attacks on temples in Australia saying the incidents were a matter of regret: "I have seen reports of attacks on temples in Australia. I have conveyed this to PM Albanese and he has assured me that the safety and well-being of the Indian community in Australia is a priority for them."

#WATCH | PM Modi says Australian PM Albanese has assured the safety of the Indian community after reports of attacks on temples pic.twitter.com/20swtPDZWk

— ANI (@ANI) March 10, 2023

• Australian PM Albanese informed that he and PM Modi agreed on an early conclusion of the ambitious Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement. "I am hopeful that we will be able to finalise it this year," he added, as per ANI.
  
  
• PM Modi informed that he discussed mutual cooperation to develop reliable, strong global supply chains, maritime security in Indo-Pacific, and ways to enhance mutual security in talks with his Australian counterpart.
  
  
• "India and Australia are both members of the Quad. I thank PM Albanese for inviting me to Australia for the Quad Leaders' summit in May.  I have invited him to India for the G20 summit in September," PM Modi said.

• We also discussed Exercise Malabar which Australia is honoured to host this year, Anthony Albanese said.

Ahead of the joint address, Modi and Anthony Albanese witnessed the exchange of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries in Delhi. MoUs were signed in sports and audio-visual co-production agreement and terms of reference for Solar Taskforce exchanged between India and Australia, ANI reported.

Earlier in the day, the Australian Prime Minister said Canberra wants to cooperate with India to build a stronger relationship in areas of culture, economic relations as well as security.

Albanese's visit comes after a series of high-level engagements and an exchange of ministerial trips between the two sides in 2022 and in 2023.

The India-Australia bilateral economic ties have been strengthening as trade between the two countries was USD 27.5 billion (one billion = 100 crore) in 2021. Australia is the 17th largest trading partner of India and India is Australia's ninth largest trading partner, according to official data cited by news agency PTI.

Notably, the Economic Cooperation Trade Agreement (ECTA) entered into force in December 2022.

It is the first free trade agreement signed by India with any developed country in a decade.

The ECTA has resulted in an immediate reduction of duty to zero on 96 per cent of Indian exports to Australia in value and zero duty on 85 per cent of Australia's exports (in value) to India.

With ECTA, India and Australia are exploring the potential for bilateral trade to reach around USD 50 billion in five years.

India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia. The Indian community in Australia continues to grow in size and importance.

Cooperation in education is also on an upward trajectory.