India Australia Relations and Strategic Partnership
India and Australia have strong cordial relations and several commonalities, which serve as a foundation for closer India Australia cooperation and multifaceted interaction, on lines similar to what India has developed with other Western countries. India and Australia Both are strong, vibrant, secular and multicultural democracies. They both have a free press and an independent judicial system; the English language is an important link. Cricket, and now the large numbers of Indian students coming to Australia for education, are significant elements in awareness at the popular level. The relationship has grown in strength and importance since India’s economic reforms in the nineties and has made rapid strides in all areas - trade, energy and mining, science & technology, information technology, education and defence. Australia is in India’s extended neighbourhood, a point made by then Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith when he made a key note address in September 2008 a...