Australia shares India’s China concerns

Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles visited India on a four-day tour, the highestlevel visit so far, since Anthony Albanese government took charge in Canberra. The main objective of the visit was to boost defence and strategic cooperation with India and “compare notes with friends”. Minister Marles’visit bears high significance both, in bilateral and strategic contexts, and his sharp remarks during the visit have proven the skeptics wrong who anticipated a softening of the Australia’s policy towards Chinaand perhaps a less intensive engagement with India consequently, under the new Labor regime. However, Minister Marles emphasized, “There hasn’t been a point in both countries’ histories where there has been such a strong strategic alignment… [and Canberra is keen to] deepen its understanding of, and engagement with, one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations, the soon to be most populous nation in the world, and a deeply consequential power”.He also said that Australia has placed India at the heart of its policy in the Indo-Pacific and beyond.

But perhaps, his strongest remark transpired during his speech at the National Defence College, where he called China as Australia’s biggest trading partner as well as a security anxiety, and reminded that neighbours needed reassurance to prevent any quid pro quo military build-up. In India’s context he reiterated, “India’s own experience illustrates this maxim more than most. The assault on Indian forces along the Line of Actual Control in 2020 was a warning we should all heed. Australia stood up for India’s sovereignty then and continues to do so now. It is vital that China commits to resolving this dispute through a process of dialogue consistent with international law. The global rules-based order matters everywhere, including in the highest place on earth”.

Many are not aware that this is not the first visit by Minister Marles to India. In 2012, he had visited India as the Australian parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs and then he had observed, “India holds great importance for Australia and the wider region”. His assessment of India’s stature and challenges apparently remains unchanged.

Minister Marles is not alone in making such an assessment. In June 2022, the US Army’s Pacific Commanding General Charles Fynn visited New Delhi and had remarked that China’s behavior was “destabilizing and corrosive in the Indo- Pacific and not helpful at all”. He also said China’s infrastructure development in Eastern Ladakh is “eye opening” and one must ask what is the intention behind these developments and the military build-up. He highlighted that China’s behaviour has changed considerably between 2014 and 2022, and the CCP and PRC have taken an increment and insidious path which is destabilizing and corrosive for the region.

Australia has also experienced serious difficulties in dealing with China’s aggressive domestic and foreign policies, which came to aboil in 2021in the form of punitive tariff imposition, when prime minister Scott Morrison demanded an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus from a lab in Wuhan. Former foreign Minister Marise Payne too had also been deeply critical of China’s crackdown against prodemocracy protestors in Hong Kong, against Uyghurs Muslims in Xinjiang and bellicosity and bluster towards Taiwan. Also, Defence Minister Peter Dutton had accused China of cyber-attacks and interference in Australia’s political and internal affairs. Australia’s concerns are no different to those of India, US and Japan which haveunderpinned the mobilization of the quadrilateral understanding and cooperation between the four and also become a catalyst for the Australia, UK and US (AUKUS) grouping.

Minister Marles visit is expected to boost bilateral cooperation in clean energy technologies, ultra low-cost solar and clean hydrogen manufacturing and deployment, affordable and reliable energy access for all, cyber, drone and space cooperation, maritime exchanges, mutual defence logistics arrangements, intelligence sharing and a shared strategic resolve to ensure an open, resilient, secure and rules-based Indo-Pacific.

Undoubtedly, Australia- India Compressive Strategic Partnership is at a historic high.