Modi's Australia visit: cementing a strategic partnership in an uncertain Indo-Pacific

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a three-day visit to Australia demonstrating his government’s sharpened focus on Australia as a top tier partner under Act East Policy and the MAHASAGAR vision.

India and Australia have an extensive to do list: institutionalise cooperation in defence including defence procurements, maritime domain awareness and interoperability, critical minerals, new and emerging technologies, clean energy, education, trade and investment, and counter-terrorism and cybercrime. Strengthening resilient and reliable supply chains remains a key objective.

For decades, India-Australia relations were defined colloquially by Cricket, Curry, and the Commonwealth. Today, the focus has shifted to defence, diaspora, democracy, and development cooperation. Cordial but distant relations during the Cold War years have evolved into a robust Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, grounded in shared geopolitical interests, economic complementarities, and a commitment to protect the rules-based Indo-Pacific order and democratic values.

India and Australia are further connected through various minilateral arrangements, including the Quad, the India-Indonesia-Australia Trilateral Dialogue on the Indian Ocean (TDIO), the Japan-Australia-India (JAI) partnership, the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI), the India-France-Australia trilateral dialogue, and the Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation (ACITI) Partnership.

The bilateral relationship is supported by institutional mechanisms such as the Annual Leaders' Summit, the India-Australia 2+2 foreign and defence ministers’ dialogue, technology partnerships, and enhanced defence interoperability. On the security front, the partnership has evolved from bilateral naval exercises to substantive military coordination and information & intelligence sharing, maritime domain awareness, interoperability between defence forces, and transfer of technology. Australia now joins the Malabar naval exercise with India, Japan, and the US and India’s biennial multi-nation MILAN naval exercise. India is a participant in Australia’s Operation Kakadu.

Both countries also coordinate through the Quad and support ASEAN-led institutions such as the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus), the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and the East Asia Summit. Together, these efforts aim not to form an anti-China alliance, but to enhance regional deterrence and maintain strategic balance without creating formal military blocs.

Another key focus of the visit is critical minerals. Australia holds some of the world’s largest reserves of lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements, which are vital for electric vehicles, renewable energy, semiconductors, and advanced manufacturing. India’s clean energy transition and manufacturing growth rely on secure access to these resources. This resource advantage has made reducing reliance on concentrated global supply chains a strategic priority for both countries. Australia’s resource abundance and India’s manufacturing ambitions create strong complementarities. The India-Australia MoU on the supply of uranium is a path-breaking development, as it would help India meet its target of producing 100 gigawatts of energy annually using nuclear technology by 2047.

But economic relations lag strategic cooperation. While bilateral trade has reached US$ 34 billion since the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) entered into force in 2022, the two sides are yet to achieve their true trade potential. Both governments see considerable untapped potential that can be realised through a Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA).

Technological cooperation is key to the ambition for deeper economic ties. Both countries consider technological resilience essential to national security. The opportunity covers artificial intelligence, quantum computing, semiconductors, electric vehicles, cybersecurity, telecommunications, biotechnology, and space collaboration. Rather than competing individually with major technology powers, India and Australia aim to build trusted technology ecosystems with like-minded partners, supported by Quad initiatives. Their combined strengths create opportunities in green hydrogen, solar technologies, and energy infrastructure financing.

People-to-people ties also remain a strong foundation for bilateral relations providing a living bridge between India and Australia. Australia hosts one of the largest Indian student populations globally, and the Indian diaspora serves as an important economic, political, and cultural connection. Both countries should enhance cooperation in higher education, focusing on mutual recognition of qualifications, research partnerships, university collaborations, and skilled mobility pathways.

The significance of Modi’s visit to Australia extends beyond bilateral relations and reflects broader geopolitical trends. India aims to be a bigger strategic player in Southeast Asia and Australasia. This underpins its own security and assertion of strategic autonomy in the face of the China-US rivalry.

As the two superpowers become increasingly locked in bilateral dynamics, rising and middle powers such as India, Australia, and Japan must take greater responsibility for regional military security.

This extends to economic security. China’s export control regime for critical and rare earth minerals, and its weaponisation of trade, have made countries in the region wary. India and Australia must address such threats systematically and resolutely.

Flexible strategic coalitions like the Quad can play a bigger role by becoming more operational without taking on the attributes of formal military alliances. However, instead of fixating on Quad, India, Japan, and Australia must strengthen their trilateral cooperation and work to engage more like-minded regional and extra-regional countries.

India wants to become a leading Indo-Pacific power equipped with one of the largest armed forces and economies both, shaping regional governance with trusted partners.

Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Australia fundamentally shows that New Delhi and Canberra increasingly see each other as indispensable stakeholders in building a resilient regional architecture to address twenty-first-century geopolitical and economic challenges.

If implemented effectively, the outcomes of this visit will further institutionalise India-Australia relations as a defining Indo-Pacific strategic partnership, contributing to bilateral prosperity, regional stability, economic resilience, and consolidating a rules-based international order.

Dr Rahul Mishra is Senior Research Fellow at the German-Southeast Asian Center of Excellence for Public Policy and Good Governance, Thammasat University, Thailand, and Associate Professor at the Centre for Indo-Pacific Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

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