India, Australia boost critical minerals partnership to secure battery supply chains, cut China's dominance

New Delhi [India], September 23 (ANI): Counsellor Energy & Resources at the Australian High Commission, Sanjiva de Silva, highlighted the growing collaboration between India and Australia in the critical minerals sector, emphasising efforts to strengthen battery supply chains and support the global energy transition.

"The Australian and Indian governments have been working for the last three years to combine forces to find projects in Australia that meet the needs of the Indian industry. That process was led on the Indian side by a consortium called KABIL and on the Australian side within the Critical Minerals Office within our Department of Industry," de Silva said.

He noted that both governments had already made significant progress in advancing these initiatives. "We have identified those projects, and the Indian side has done a fantastic job in advancing to the final stages of the competitive processes for these major investments," he added.

Building on this progress, de Silva underlined the broader strategic objective of ensuring secure and diversified supply chains. "Whether through this process or through the business-to-business collaboration that Australia has, it is crucial to consider the new battery supply chains that countries can secure offtake for. At the moment, it is very commonly known that China dominates a lot of that offtake market. What we are trying to do through the collaboration between the Australian and Indian governments is to position India to have access to some of that offtake," he stressed.

Highlighting Australia's global standing in this field, he said, "Australia exports about half the world's lithium, so we are a superpower in the critical mineral space. Australia stands ready to work with our like-minded trading partners to diversify and to deepen critical minerals supply chains so that countries can make the batteries and the solar panels and the magnets that are needed to drive the energy transition."

The partnership on critical minerals came at a time when India and Australia were also widening cooperation in other strategic sectors, particularly defence. On July 3 this year, the two countries undertook their first science and technology project arrangement to improve the detection and tracking of submarines and autonomous underwater vehicles. The agreement, announced by Australia's Department of Defence, was set to boost defence ties in the area of undersea surveillance technologies.

As per the Department of Defence, the agreement outlined a three-year joint research project between Australia's Defence Science and Technology Group's (DSTG) Information Sciences Division and India's Defence Research and Development Organisation's (DRDO) Naval Physical and Oceanographic Laboratory.

The DSTG was the Australian government's leading agency employing one of the largest number of scientists and engineers who delivered advice and innovative solutions on matters of defence science and technology.

The Department of Defence noted that the leading-edge research would explore the use of Towed Array Target Motion Analysis technology so as to improve the reliability, efficiency and interoperability of current surveillance capabilities.

Discipline Leader in DSTG's Information Sciences Division, Amanda Bessell, explained the significance of the technology. Target Motion Analysis, she said, was a collective term for target tracking algorithms developed to estimate the state of a moving target.

"Target Motion Analysis is the crucial element in maintaining platform situational awareness, when a passive mode of operation is required," Ms Bessell said as quoted by the Department of Defence.

The research project, therefore, was unique in the way it utilised a towed array-based signal processing system, offering both nations an advanced edge in maritime domain awareness.

Notably, the announcement by Australia's Department of Defence came after External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar met his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, on the sidelines of the QUAD Foreign Ministers' Meeting, which took place in the US earlier this July. The timing of the announcement underlined how both sides were pushing forward cooperation in defence technology alongside strengthening their strategic partnership.

EAM Jaishankar, in his remarks, underscored that their meeting also marked the 5th anniversary of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership of India and Australia.

Previously in Rajya Sabha, MoS External Affairs Pabitra Margherita had noted that Australia was the only country with which India had three unique frameworks namely-- Annual Leaders' Summit, 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue and Foreign Ministers' Framework Dialogue. (ANI)

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