4 min readNew DelhiMar 10, 2023 02:40 PM IST
First published on: Mar 10, 2023 at 02:36 PM IST
During the bilateral meeting with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is in the country for a visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday raised the issue of vandalism of Hindu temples in Australia.
Modi said incidents of vandalism of Hindu temples cause concern to Indians. “Matter of regret that reports have come regularly from Australia in the last few weeks about attacks on temples…it is natural that such news makes people in India worried.”
“I have conveyed this to PM Albanese and he has assured me that the safety and well-being of the Indian community in Australia is a priority for them,” PM Modi said.
The two also discussed defence and security cooperation between the two countries. Albanese said defence and security is an important pillar amid the increasingly uncertain global security environment. “I welcome significant and ambitious progress under the Defence and Security pillar of our relationship. Prime Minister Modi and I are discussing an increasingly uncertain global security environment and committed to strengthening the Australia-India defence and security partnership to address shared challenges and work towards an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific,” he said.
“I welcome increased defence information sharing between Australia and India including in the maritime domain. We also discussed exercise Malabar, which Australia is honoured to be hosting this year,” Albanese said.
The two leaders held wide-ranging talks in the first bilateral visit by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to India since he entered office in May last year. Albanese expressed hope that they will be able to conclude the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation agreement by the end of this year. PM Modi and Albanese also signed pacts on cooperation in sports, audio-visual co-production, and solar task force.
New Delhi and Canberra are looking to expand cooperation in defence, clean energy, education and economic spheres. Modi said they agreed to step up cooperation in the field of renewable energy, and identified clean hydrogen and solar energy as the two areas of cooperation with Australia. The two leaders also discussed the progress in the negotiations of the migration and mobility agreement, which is expected to benefit students, professionals, workers, academics and researchers.
While Albanese said he looked forward to welcoming Modi to Australia for the Quad leaders’ summit in May this year, PM Modi said he was looking forward to welcoming his Australian counterpart for his second visit to India later this year — for the G20 summit in Delhi in September. The two leaders also discussed cooperation in the critical minerals supply chain.
Earlier in the day, the Australian PM was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapati Bhavan by President Droupadi Murmu, PM Modi and External Affairs minister S Jaishankar, among others. He also visited Raj Ghat where he paid tributes to Mahatma Gandhi. Albanese arrived in Delhi on Thursday evening after concluding his engagements in Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
“Australia and India are great friends. We are partners and we are building that partnership even stronger each and every day,” Albanese said after he was accorded a ceremonial welcome at the Rashtrapati Bhavan this morning.
The Australian prime minister said Canberra wants to cooperate with India to build a stronger relationship in areas of culture, economic relations as well as security. “We are competing on the cricket field to be the world’s best, but together we are building a better world,” he said.
The last visit to India by an Australian prime minister was in 2017. Albanese’s visit comes after a series of high-level engagements and exchange of ministerial trips between the two sides in 2022 and in 2023.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese during their joint press statement after a meeting at the Hyderabad House, in New Delhi, Friday, March 10, 2023. (PTI Photo) 
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