Security ties and stronger education partnerships will be at the top of the batting order when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese touches down in India.
Mr Albanese is leading a delegation of Australia’s top business people as well as trade and resources ministers as the federal government attempts to increase economic and security partnerships with India.
Deakin University will open a new campus in India and become the first foreign university to set up a physical campus in the populous nation.
Universities Australia chief executive Catriona Jackson says increased research collaboration between the two nations is a priority as the relationship continues to “move ahead in leaps and bounds”.
“This will support India’s hugely ambitious education reforms,” she said of the new campus.
The announcement will be made at an event in Ahmedabad that will be attended by Ms Jackson, Mr Albanese, Deakin University’s chancellor and vice-chancellor and senior Indian ministers.
Deakin will invest an initial $4 million for 100 students to study cyber security and business analytics each year.
The University of Melbourne is also working towards a dual science degree with three Indian universities.
The security partnership is also in the spotlight.
Acting prime minister Richard Marles said the bilateral relationship mattered with India becoming a superpower and China’s increasing militarisation and assertiveness in the region.
“This is a relationship which matters because we share an ocean, we share a region and increasingly we are becoming security partners,” he told parliament on Wednesday.
“India and Australia have greater strategic alignment now than we have at any point.”
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton also lauded the partnership, saying Australians of Indian heritage are an integral part of the community.
“The relationship between our two countries is certainly based on mutual respect for the game of cricket, but so much more than that,” he said.
“When you look at the diaspora community, the young students who are escaping poverty and creating a life in Australia – that couldn’t have been imagined a generation ago, two generations ago.”
Commonwealth Bank CEO Matt Comyn said the trip was a significant opportunity to build on strong economic ties, with India Australia’s sixth-largest trading partner and fourth-largest export market.
“Australia and India have enjoyed strong economic, social and cultural ties going back over many decades,” he told AAP.
“We have many shared interests in working together even more closely, especially in sectors such as digital technologies, financial services, education and renewable energy.”
The prime minister says there is room to improve the relationship with both nations sharing a rich history.
“We’re bound by our democratic values and enlivened by genuine friendship,” he said.
“But also … a fierce sporting rivalry,” he said, hoping his Indian tour fares better than the Australian cricket team, which is trailing 1-2 in the series.
Mr Albanese will visit Mumbai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad and attend the fourth Test between the two nations alongside his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
© AAP 2023
