DR S. JAISHANKAR, INDIA’S MINISTER OF EXTERNAL AFFAIRS: Excellency, Minister Penny, it's a great pleasure to welcome you and your delegation to India for the 16th India-Australia Foreign Minister's Dialogue. I put a lot of value on our frequent engagements, and I do believe that they actually offer us a certain continuity of discussions and communication and understanding.
And as a result of that, I truly believe today, we have a comfort level that has never been as strong as it is right now. Our Foreign Ministers Framework Dialogue has been one of the key pillars of the comprehensive strategic partnership, and it surely reflects the trust the democratic values and our common vision for a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific.
As we mark five years of that partnership, the warmth and the ease of cooperation is there for all to witness. We have seen a remarkable expansion across all pillars of cooperation, including trade and investment, defence and security, education and skills, research and innovation, science, technology, space, energy and so on. But most of all in our vibrant people. Our growing partnership obviously owes much to the guidance and vision of our Prime Ministers. Today's meeting offers an excellent opportunity for us to not only review the progress achieved, but also to set the agenda and course for the next phase of ties and the recommendations that we would make to our Prime Ministers I think would be key for them to take into account when they will meet very soon.
There are, of course, different aspects to our ties, different dimensions from defence and security. We had your Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister visit us in June for the fifth anniversary of the CSP, our Defense Minister was in Australia just recently. I thank you very much for the warmth of your welcome. And we, I think, today, whether it is our large and complex bilateral or multilateral exercises, our interoperability, the work we do together in maritime domain awareness and cyber security and all these really reflect the confidence of our relationship. Our trade and investment linkages have also grown steadily and the ongoing negotiations of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, I'm confident, would be concluded very soon. I know from our Commerce and Industry Minister, who once again in Australia just a few days ago, that they made good progress. But the bottom line is, the trade numbers today speak for themselves, and those numbers are looking increasingly good.
In the realm of skills and education, our universities have actually provided the lead in creating new formats of innovation. We are very welcoming of many of your universities who are already here. We hope many more would follow suit and they have actually, today, I think, added a very important dimension to our cooperation in India.
Our energy dialogue, again, has moved forward. Minister Bowen and Minister Khattar have their meeting, and the India-Australia Renewable Partnership, which was announced by our leaders at the annual summit last year, is a reflection of that particular priority.
Let me take the opportunity as well to express our appreciation for your support for our Gaganyaan human space flight mission, and we welcome Australia's plans to launch its satellite from an Indian launch vehicle.
I've spoken about the diaspora, the living bridge, which is so important in our relations, and finally, the current complex geopolitical situation. I think it's clear that it's evident that democracies like India and Australia carry greater responsibility. There are common challenges for us to address, including maritime security and resilient supply chains, or, for that matter, countering terrorism and ensuring climate action. So it is essential that we sustain a strong momentum in our ties, that we deliver tangible outcomes, that we work together to achieve this through shared regional and global priorities. Once again, a very warm welcome to India, I look forward to your opening remarks.
PENNY WONG, FOREIGN MINISTER: Thank you very much, Jai. We appreciate you welcoming me and my delegation here, and thank you for hosting us in India for the 16th framework dialogue. It gives me very great pleasure to see you too, personally and like you, I place a great deal of importance on our relationship, our personal relationship. They tell me this is our 26th meeting, which is, means, you still are the person I've met the most in this job, and think, I think that the, our relationship has only grown to the benefit of our two countries.
Our two nations have never been closer, and in many ways, our partnership never more consequential. And if I may, it's a mark of how close we are that we've turned up, despite the fact that you’ve beaten us in both women’s and men’s cricket.
On a more serious note, today, picking up where you ended, we see this partnership as critical and weighty in its own terms, bilaterally, but as also as crucial for the region. You are a leading power and we are Comprehensive Strategic Partners who share a vision of a peaceful, stable, prosperous Indo-Pacific. We want to lead with that partnership for the benefit of both countries, both our peoples and for our region. And we want to use all the tools at our disposal, that includes bilateral but also through the Quad and through multilateral institutions.
I often speak about our region being reshaped and what I would say to you is in that reshaping Australia remains India's reliable partner; our strategic alignment is converging, our economic ties are deepening, our educational ties are growing exponentially, I think we have six Australian universities here in India, and underpinning all of this is, of course, as you described it the multitude of connections between our people. Indian-Australians are our fastest-growing diaspora community, and we are very, very proud of Australia’s multicultural community, and we value greatly, the Indian-Australian community.
We do live in a sharper and more competitive world, and we know we will always be better off to respond, to share challenges, and we'll outline some of these today. So in this we are partners, reliable partners, and I hope that this discussion, in this discussion, we can chart the next phase of our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. So thank you.