India, Australia to deepen cooperation for ‘free and open’ Indo-Pacific

India and Australia today discussed a new roadmap for mutual maritime security collaboration aimed at deepening cooperation to ensure a “free, open and resilient Indo-Pacific”.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is on a two-day visit to Australia (October 9-10), held a bilateral meeting with Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles in Canberra.

A joint statement issued after the meeting said, “The ministers affirmed the importance of maintaining a free, open, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”

The statement added that both sides reaffirmed strong support for freedom of navigation and overflight, unimpeded trade and other lawful uses of the sea in accordance with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The phrase “free and open Indo-Pacific” is often used as a euphemism for countering Chinese assertiveness in the region, particularly in the South China Sea. India and Australia are part of the four-nation Quad grouping along with the US and Japan. The four nations are scheduled to conduct a joint military exercise next month at Guam, a US base in the Western Pacific.

The two sides also discussed a joint maritime security collaboration roadmap to advance maritime cooperation and looked forward to renewing the 2009 Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation.

The expansion of the bilateral defence architecture will include the institution of an annual Defence Ministers’ Dialogue. Both sides also agreed to pursue defence collaboration in emerging technologies through the Joint Working Group on Defence Industry, Research and Materiel, the statement said.

India and Australia also signed an arrangement on mutual submarine rescue support and cooperation. The two countries already collaborate on maritime domain awareness and anti-submarine warfare operations, including coordinated patrols by their P-8I maritime patrol aircraft in the Indian Ocean.

They also agreed to continue aircraft deployments from each other’s territories to build operational familiarity.

The ministers welcomed Australia’s first defence trade mission to India from October 7 to 10, focused on connecting Australian firms with Indian counterparts, particularly in the C5ISR domain — command, control, communications, computers, cyber-defence, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Defence and security cooperation has emerged as one of the strongest pillars of the bilateral partnership. Over the past decade, the number of annual defence exercises, meetings and activities has tripled, with 33 such engagements held in 2024 alone.

Earlier in the day, Singh was welcomed at the Australian Parliament House, where he also witnessed parliamentary proceedings in Canberra.

He also met Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, broadly focusing on imparting more dynamism to the relations.