NEW DELHI: India and Australia will ink three agreements to further enhance bilateral defence cooperation in information sharing, maritime security and joint military activities during defence minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to the country.Singh will conduct wide-ranging discussions with Australian deputy PM and defence minister Richard Marles as well as chair a business roundtable in Sydney, with industry leaders from the two sides, during his Oct 9-10 visit. “The visit comes at a historic moment when India and Australia commemorate five years of establishing their `comprehensive strategic partnership’. It will also mark the first-ever visit of an Indian defence minister to Australia under this government since 2014,” an official said.“The visit will provide an important opportunity for both sides to explore new and meaningful initiatives to further strengthen the bilateral relationship and the defence partnership,” he added.The defence engagements have expanded over time to include wide-ranging interactions between the services, military-to-military exchanges, high-level visits, capacity-building and training programmes, cooperation in the maritime domain and combat exercises. In a meeting between Singh and Marles in June this year, the two sides had decided to intensify and diversify defence-industrial collaboration as well as steadily work together towards their shared commitment for a free and open Indo-Pacific, with an eye firmly on an aggressive and expansionist China.The Indian and Australian armies are slated to conduct the fourth edition of the “AustraHind” combat exercise at Irwin Barracks in Perth from Oct 13 to 26. It aims to further strengthen the operational capabilities of the two forces in undertaking joint company-level operations in urban and semi-urban terrains under the UN mandate, reflecting the shared commitment towards global peace and security, another official said.Australia — along with Japan — is also a regular participant in the top-notch quadrilateral Malabar naval exercise, with the next edition to be conducted off Guam in the Western Pacific next month. The Malabar began as a bilateral India-US exercise in 1992 but includes all “Quad” countries now. India also has a military logistics agreement with Australia, which provides for reciprocal refuelling, repair and berthing facilities for warships and aircraft, on the lines of the ones it has with other countries like the US, France, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
