Victoria LoP calls meeting PM Modi "an absolute honour," hails India-Australia ties as "incredibly important"

Melbourne [Australia], July 10 (ANI): Victoria LoP Jess Wilson on Friday (local time) hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Melbourne, defining the India-Australia ties as an “incredibly important relationship.”

Speaking with ANI, Wilson reflected on her meeting with PM Modi, calling it an “absolute honour” stating that the talks revolved around the goal of strengthening the India-Australia partnership. She extended gratitude to the PM for inviting her to visit India, expressing enthusiasm over it.

“It was an absolute honour to meet Prime Minister Modi this morning, and I carry the best wishes of everyone here in the Indian community in Melbourne and Victoria… This is an incredibly important relationship, one that is based on trade, people-to-people, education, and sporting links. The Prime Minister this morning talked about his goal to strengthen that relationship, and that is certainly my goal. It was delightful to hear from the Prime Minister that he invited me to visit India. I very much look forward to doing so,” she stated.

The Victoria LoP further highlighted the connection between the two nations through sports, precisely cricket and said, “We’ve got a wonderful tradition, particularly through cricket, and I think there’s a lot of opportunity to expand on that.”

Her remarks come as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart, Anthony Albanese, concluded the third Australia-India Annual Leaders’ Summit on Thursday, marking a significant milestone in the two nations’ six-year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The meeting, hosted in Melbourne, resulted in a landmark suite of agreements focused on reinforcing the Indo-Pacific’s security architecture, securing critical mineral supply chains, and accelerating the transition to clean energy.

According to the joint statement released by the PMO Australia, central to the summit was the release of a new Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation, which effectively replaces the 2009 security pact and deepens military integration.

“Australia values India as a top-tier security partner, and the Declaration reflects our shared commitment to a peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific region,” Prime Minister Albanese stated. “We will boost strategic coordination, increase the complexity of our defence exercises and further build interoperability between our defence forces.”

Prime Minister Modi underscored the practical implications of this shift, noting the creation of an India-Australia Defence Innovation Corridor.

“Through the India-Australia Defence Innovation Corridor, we will work to connect defence startups and industries,” Modi said. “Our maritime security collaboration roadmap will infuse new strength to our shared efforts in the Indo-Pacific.”

Another major breakthrough of the summit was the finalisation of the administrative arrangements required to implement the 2015 Australia-India Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. This milestone paves the way for the export of Australian uranium to India, exclusively for peaceful, IAEA-safeguarded civil nuclear energy programs.

“The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help increase the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity, providing an additional market for the Australian resources sector,” Prime Minister Albanese stated.

Prime Minister Modi echoed this sentiment, noting that the agreement would “give our clean energy objectives fresh momentum” as India seeks to drastically scale its nuclear baseload capacity by 2047.

The Prime Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to finalising the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA). Both leaders expressed a desire for an “ambitious, balanced and win-win” deal that would expand upon the success of the 2022 Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement.

“India-Australia partnership is not just a partnership for the present; it is also a partnership for the future,” Modi concluded, inviting Albanese to return to India for further consultations. (ANI)

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