Australia and India: A new partnership in the Asia Pacific Century
11 September, 2008, Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi
Thank you for that warm welcome.
I thank members of the Council for extending me the privilige of being the first Australian Foreign Minister to address an audience at Sapru House.
The Indian Council for World Affairs is a distinguished institution that, since 1943, has been dedicated to the study of international relations and foreign affairs.
It is indeed an honour for me to outline for you the great importance the Australian Government attaches to our partnership with India, and why Australia is committed to taking the relationship to a new, higher level: to the frontline of Australia's international relationships.
This has been at the forefront of the Australian Government's thinking since we took office in early December last year.
I am delighted to see in the audience India's High Commissioner to Australia, Her Excellency Sujatha Singh.
The High Commissioner heard me say to the diplomatic corps in Canberra in my first formal remarks as Foreign Minister, that it was now essential for Australia to enhance its relationship with India.
That is a theme to which I have returned on a number of occasions since:
In June at the University of Western Australia I said:
“We are committed to transforming our relationship with India for the long term: a new relationship for a new century.”
On 24 June, following the first Australia-India Foreign Ministers Framework Dialogue since 2005, I spoke in the Australian Parliament in the presence of my distinguished counterpart, External Affairs Minister Mukherjee.
I said:
'it is absolutely essential in the course of this century that Australia takes its relationship with India to a new level, that we take our relationship with India to the front line of our international partnerships, and that is what this government, with a willing partner in the government of India, will do.”
I look forward to meeting Minister Mukherjee again tomorrow, as we jointly take that great task forward.
This is a task which will bring to an end the period when successive Australian Governments have not approached our relationship with India diligently enough.
That period of fits and starts is over. Australia's past approach to India has been like a 20/20 cricket match: short bursts of enthusiam followed by lengthy periods of inactivity.
We need, rather, to treat our relationship with India like a test match. Working with diligence, dedication, application and perseverance day in and day out to extend the partnership.
This approach also acknowledges India's rise as a great power in the international community.
Pandit Nehru urged us all to listen to 'our inner voice'.
Ours tells us that Australia and India have too much in common for this relationship to deserve anything less than our full and complete attention.
Australia and India in the Asia Pacific Century
Three days ago, I arrived in Chennai from my home town, Perth.
These two great Indian Ocean cities are closer to each other than Sydney is to Seoul, Shanghai or Tokyo.
I began my first visit to India as Foreign Minister in India's dynamic south. In Chennai and Hyderabad I spoke to local industry, political, sporting, scientific and technological leaders.
Whether at the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics or the LV Prasad Eye Institute, I was impressed both with the energy and creativity of those I met.
At these organisations and others I visited, I witnessed how collaboration between Australians and Indians, and between our companies and educational institutions is changing lives, creating opportunity and benefiting both our countries.
No visitor could fail to be impressed by the pace and scale of economic transformation unfolding in the south.
As in Perth and Western Australia, a city and a State driving Australia's minerals and petroleum resources boom, you are reminded every day that the 21st century is indeed the Asia-Pacific century.
India is playing its integral role in the historic shift in the centre of gravity of global economic, security and strategic power and influence to the Asia-Pacific.
India is at the heart of this global shift in power and influence.
Having for many years grown at 8 to 9 per cent annually, India's economy last year exceeded US$1 trillion. Some forecast it will be the world's third-largest economy by 2025.
Australia is fortunate to be an active part of this economic transformation, not just a bystander. This underpins my optimism when I contemplate the Asia-Pacific Century of which India is so integral a part.
It also explains the energy the Australian Government is injecting into our engagement with India and the Asia-Pacific region.
Australia's future as a nation state is linked to that of India and our other Asian and Pacific neighbours and partners.
Our economic growth is powered by theirs.
In turn, we make a substantial contribution to their growth.
In India's case, through the resources that fuel your industries, the expertise of our service providers, and the skills our educationalists impart to your students.
In our first nine months in office, the Australian Government has been fortunate enough to welcome a series of high-profile Indian visitors.
In June as I noted earlier, I had the privilege of hosting a visit by my counterpart, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, for the Fifth Australia-India Foreign Ministers Framework Dialogue.
Indeed, in all, seven very distinguished Indian Ministers have visited Australia in the first nine months of this year, underscoring the growing depth and breadth of our relationship.
In addition to my current visit to Chennai, Hyderabad and New Delhi, my colleague, Simon Crean, the Trade Minister, made India one of his first overseas visits. The Minister for Resources and Energy, Martin Ferguson, will visit in October.
Prime Minister Rudd has indicated he very much wants to visit India before the end of the year. This would follow the successful meeting between Prime Ministers Rudd and Singh at the margins of the G8 meeting in Japan.
This is an unprecedented array of high-level governmental engagement.
Looking east, looking west
Today the world sees India, the largest Parliamentary democracy, assuming the global influence to which its economic size and strength, its strategic weight and its rich history entitle it.
In some times past, India and China accounted for a lion's share of world economic activity. Soon, that will again be the case.
As Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh told his nation in his most recent Independence Day address, India is 'rapidly marching forward to regain its rightful place in the comity of nations' .
Australia sees an India that combines a remarkable pace of domestic development with an active role in the regional and international arena.
The complementarity between our countries rests on much more than the English language, cricket, hockey and burgeoning economic, educational and scientific linkages.
That complementarity rests on profound values and virtues we have in common, including democracy, pluralism and the rule of law.
They include our shared wish to play constructive roles in regional and world affairs
In 1947, the year of India's independence, Australia and India worked together to bring the conflict between the Indonesians and the Dutch about Indonesia's own independence before the United Nations Security Council against the wishes of the UK, the US and the Netherlands.
Since then, India and Australia have become major contributors to United Nations' peacekeeping operations, including East Timor and Sudan.
India is a vital contributor to major international fora.
It is Australia's firm view that India, also a committed champion of multilateralism, be given a permanent seat on a reformed United Nations Security Council, so that the world body reflects the modern international geo-political reality.
Australia's record of long and active engagement with the United Nations Security Council, and our wider contribution to the United Nations, places us in good stead to serve again.
Australia will seek election to the United Nations Security Council for the 2013-14 term.
I underline the extent to which India will be a rapidly growing and positive force in the future of the whole of Asia.
The 'Look East' policy launched by former Prime Minister Narasimha Rao in the early 1990s has paved the way for India's growing engagement in Asia, and just as India now looks to the east, so too must Australia look to the west, increasing the scope for regional cooperation between India and Australia.
India and Australia are both members of, and cooperate closely in, the ASEAN Regional Forum and the East Asia Summit.
India is not to date a member of APEC, but it is Australia's strong view that India should be a member when the membership moratorium ends in 2010.
We welcome the fact that India has concluded a Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN, just as Australia and New Zealand recently have concluded an FTA with ASEAN.
We were also pleased that India supported Australia being granted observer status at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
Australia looks forward to attending its first SAARC Summit in the Maldives in 2009.1
Both India and Australia have an interest in a stable, prosperous region.
The interests and values we share with India underpin common goals, such as, on the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, our commitment to combat terrorism and extremism.
India has raised the possibility of new or enhanced Asian regional architecture.
As Minister Mukherjee told a Chinese student audience in June, what is needed is “an open and inclusive architecture, which is flexible enough to accommodate the great diversity which exists in Asia ”.2
That basic belief is also at the heart of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's initiative for an Asia Pacific community.
Mr Rudd's envoy will be visiting India later this year to pursue this conversation, as we work to promote greater strategic stability in this rapidly developing part of the world.
Australia and India remain committed to addressing the critical challenge of nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, about which each of our two Prime Ministers has spoken publicly.
We share an ultimate objective of nuclear disarmament and both nations have a very good record on non-proliferation.
Nuclear weapons still pose a threat to humanity. The challenge of nuclear proliferation can only be addressed through effective multilateral action.
That's why Australia is establishing an International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament, to be co-chaired by former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans and former Japanese Foreign Minister, Ms Yoriko Kawaguchi.
I welcome India's supportive attitude to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament and look forward to Indian participation in its work.
Twenty years on, this is not unlike Prime Minister Rajiv Ghandi's own nuclear disarmament initiative.
The Commission will aim to shape a global consensus in the lead up to the 2010 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference and beyond.
In pursuing this, we are very encouraged by the reaction we have received to date from both nuclear and non-nuclear weapon states.
I also welcome the strong public reaffirmation of India's support for disarmament and non-proliferation made by External Affairs Minister Mukherjee on 5 September.
As you know, on 6 September, the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) adopted by consensus a policy statement on civil nuclear cooperation with India that will enable civil nuclear supply to India by those NSG participating nations who choose to do so.
As India knows, Australia was positive and constructive in discussions in the NSG meetings on an India-specific exemption to the NSG Guidelines.
Australia supported the NSG consensus and we welcome the outcome which, as well as having non-proliferation benefits, reflects India's rise as a significant power.
Before both the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the NSG Australia took into account both non-proliferation considerations and the strategic importance of the issue for both India and the United States.
The Australian Government's policy is not to supply uranium to non-Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty countries. That policy approach is of long standing and well known.
Our policy has also been, and remains, not to supply other items to non-NPT signatories for use in nuclear programs. This position remains unaffected by the NSG decision.
This also does not disturb Australia's ongoing approach to consider, on a case by case basis, applications for the export of dual use items.
Australia is mindful of India's profound need for energy and resources.
As one of the world's largest suppliers of energy and resources, Australia is working closely with India to promote trade in this sector whether clean coal technology or liquefied natural gas. India is Australia's fastest growing export market, and energy and resources are the main drivers behind this growth.
Australia's relationship with India goes far beyond the export of minerals, indeed one individual commodity.
We have a broad ranging, enduring relationship.
It's one that can accommodate differences of opinion on particular issues, and can move forward constructively and positively.
Importantly, we are extending our relationship into many new areas, building on wide-ranging common interests.
On the strategic front, our defence forces have begun to engage in joint exercises, particularly, but not only, maritime exercises.
Military engagement is now occurring across the full range of activities, including ship visits, service-to-service level talks, professional exchanges, and research and development collaboration.
In June, I was pleased to announce with Minister Mukherjee that Australia and India have decided to step up our strategic and security dialogue by holding regular annual talks between the chiefs of our defence forces, and by strengthening our intelligence and counter-terrorism cooperation.
In recent months, we have also launched new dialogues on public sector linkages, economic and competition policy, scientific, climate change and water.
In June, Minister Mukherjee and I underlined the capacity of our two countries to work together to mutual benefit in legal matters by signing extradition and legal mutual assistance treaties.
We inaugurated a new joint working group on passports, visas and consular affairs.
I am particularly pleased, given that that we are here today in Sapru House, that we unveiled a new Australia-India Roundtable, to be run jointly by the Lowy Institute and our host, the Indian Council of World Affairs.
The Roundtable will bring together eminent people from both countries to discuss common challenges and opportunities.
I look forward to discussing tomorrow with Minister Mukherjee more practical measures to take our partnership forward.
Building on trade and education
Our business communities have brought about very impressive levels of growth in our bilateral trade and investment.
Trade with India has grown faster than any of Australia's other major partners over the past five years.
Over that period, Australian goods and services exports to India have risen at an annual average of more than 30 per cent. Two-way trade in goods totalled $11 billion in 2007.
Almost half of that two-way trade was with my home state, Western Australia.
India has become Australia's 10th largest trading partner, and the sixth largest market for Australian merchandise exports.
The expansion of Australian exports has been built on the foundation of mineral resources.
Products like gold and coal, copper and diamonds will continue to dominate our exports for some time.
Our trade in services, however, is also growing rapidly. Information and communications technology, biotechnology, education, tourism, finance, mining, construction and software development are becoming more prominent.
India is also the seventh-largest market for Australia's services.
India is now Australia's second fastest-growing tourism market.
The number of Indian visitors to Australia is projected to grow at an average annual rate of nearly 20 per cent over the next decade, helped by the resumption of direct air services between our two countries in 2004.
Other Indian visitors come to study. Australia has become the second most favourite destination for Indian students, worldwide.
In 2007 over 60,000 Indian students enrolled at Australian institutions. In the first nine months of this year, the figures are more than 70,000.
Our universities meet the standards and the curriculum choices of India's high-achieving youth.
Gradually, Indian and Australian investors are also beginning to seize opportunities in our respective markets.
Australian investment in India was worth over $4 billion in 2007, in areas including manufacturing, construction and project management, telecoms, and minerals processing.
Indian companies are investing in Australia just as vigorously, building on our skills in information technology, agribusiness, mining, manufacturing and services.
To unlock the full potential of our trading and investment relationship, our two countries decided last year to undertake a joint feasibility study into a bilateral Free Trade Agreement.
Good progress is being made, and my colleague, Minister for Trade Simon Crean and his counterpart, Shri Kamal Nath, agreed in May that our officials bring forward completion of the FTA feasibility study to the end of this year.
The essential complementarity between our economies is illustrated by the fact that Australia is ideally placed to work with India as it addresses two critical strategic concerns, energy and food security.
Our companies can work together to implement world best-practice extractive and clean energy technologies.
We can offer expertise in agricultural production and logistics, to help Indian farmers maximise their produce and get it to market faster and reduce waste, as well as financial and legal services and infrastructure financing and provision.
In parallel with the growth in trade I've just described, we can discern other powerful forces at work.
A network of people-to-people exchanges is adding ballast to our widening relationship, to the obvious benefit of our society and our economy.
Our Australian-Indian community embodies the diversity and vigour of India in its adopted homeland.
According to the 2006 census, the Indian community was our ninth largest ethnic group in Australia, at over 230,000, and one of the fastest growing.
Their numbers are being swelled by what is now the largest source of skilled migrants to Australia, who are filling skills gaps in our economy.
Many of those who come to study decide to become citizens or permanent residents.
Indian-born immigrants are among the most highly qualified of any group in Australia. A high number hold post-secondary qualifications and many are employed in professional and technical occupations.
The social networks between our two countries offer enormous potential for developing commercial and other relations.
Graduates from our universities – like Kiran Muzumdar-Shaw, the Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon India – do much to strengthen the network of ties between India and Australia.
In 1994, the Australian National University established an annual K.R.Narayanan Oration, both to honour this distinguished statesman and to build on his intellectual legacy.
This year's lecture will be held next Monday in Canberra, and will focus on the twin challenges of development and climate change.
We will continue to do all we can to strengthen the ties between Australian and Indian educational institutions.
Under the Australia-India Strategic Research Fund, established in 2006, Australia will provide A$20 million over five years to support a range of high quality joint projects and workshops. India is matching this contribution.
It is Australia's largest bilateral science and research fund.
There is strong Indian interest in this fund, just as there is a considerable Indian appetite for greater cooperation with Australia in the field of biotechnology.
Australia is supporting India in its fight against HIV/AIDS in the North-East states through a joint initiative in which Australia is providing A$10 million over 5 years.
Our endeavours strengthen educational, cultural and scientific links. In May this year, Australia and India concluded an MoU on intellectual property.
Last, but certainly not least, sport has amazing resonance in both our countries.
In June Mr Mukhrejee and I welcomed the decision of the Australia India Council to fund training programs for some of India's rising young women cricketers.
We also acknowledged the good work of the Australian Sports Outreach Program, which provides funding for sports projects in disadvantaged communities. The program will fund up to three projects in India this year.
In Chennai I also visited the MRF Pace Academy, another fine example of Australian and India collaboration.
This morning I viewed progress on the new National Hockey Stadium and I look forward, as do you, to New Delhi hosting the Commonwealth Games and the Hockey World Cup in 2010.
Conclusion
Today, I've outlined why Australia attaches such importance to our relationship with India.
Our businesses and industry have long recognised that India is emerging as an economic giant. They know it is vital to their future. Government fully appreciates how central India is to our future, and to the future of the Asia-Pacific, both economically and strategically.
We cannot hope to pursue a debate about the future of the Asia-Pacific region without India's participation.
So, just as India's time has come, so too the time has come for our bilateral relationship to be a major policy priority for Australia.
Australia is committed to bringing our relationship with India to the front rank of our international partnerships.
We are determined to transform that relationship for the long term, and for our common good.
We are natural partners. We should be strategic partners.
We know that, in this great and noble endeavour, we have a willing partner in India.
Thank you.