India, Australia Sign Military Agreement Amid China’s Rising Aggression
Bilateral ties elevated to “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership”; Indian Navy gets “strategic access deep into the Indo-Pacific region.”
India and Australia inked a series of defense agreements on Thursday aimed at countering Communist China’s growing military aggression in the region. Both countries elevated their ties to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership” at a video summit between Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.
The military logistics pact, signed as part of this partnership, gives the Indian Navy “a strategic access deep into the Indo-Pacific region,” The Times of India newspaper reported. The agreement gives “reciprocal access to each nation’s respective military bases,” Japanese newspaper The Nikkei explained.
The partnership between the two countries comes as Beijing militarizes the South China Sea by building artificial islands equipped with naval harbors, air strips, and military bases. In recent months, Communist China has threatened many of its neighbors, including New Delhi and Canberra. Last week, Chinese troops crossed the Indian border and fortified positions along the Himalayan frontier, reigniting a 60 year-old conflict.
“We are committed to an open, inclusive, prosperous Indo-Pacific and India’s role in that region, our region, will be critical in the years ahead,” Morrison said. Amid China’s growing land grab in the South China Sea, the Australian leader added: “We share an ocean and we share responsibilities for that ocean as well.”
India is comprehensively committed to rapidly strengthening its relations with Australia. “This is not only important for our two nations but also for the Indo-Pacific region and the whole world,” Modi said.
Indian business daily Economic Times reported the details of the strategic agreements:
India and Australia have stepped up bilateral relations to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and have concluded nine arrangements including Mutual Logistics Support for their militaries amid China’s aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.
In a significant development, the two sides also announced a Shared Vision for Maritime Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region that would result in enhanced cooperation in the maritime domain.
The long anticipated pact for sharing of military logistics will strongly step up cooperation and will give Indian warships and aircraft enhanced reach towards the Pacific. India has similar arrangements with US and France which enables easy resupply and fueling of military assets at each others bases around the world.
At the first ever virtual bilateral summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he believed that it was the “perfect time and perfect opportunity” to strengthen the relationship between the two countries.
“India-Australia relations have deepened. And this depth comes from our shared values, shared interests, shared geography and shared objectives… How our relations become a ‘factor of stability’ for our region and for the world, how we work together for global good – all these aspects need to be considered,” Modi said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison called India a “trusted friend of Australia” and a “pioneer in technology.” “India has been a positive force in these trying times and our relationship with India is a natural one. The time has come for broader and deeper ties. India has been a pioneer in technology – an area that is key today and will be so in future,” he said.
This defense partnership is part of a growing U.S.-led alliance to counter Chinese aggression. The agreement “is also expected to strengthen a quadrilateral partnership that includes Japan and the U.S. and is seen by analysts as part of efforts to contain China’s influence in the Indo-Pacific,” Tokyo-based business daily The Nikkei reported.
“The United States, Japan and some other countries have expressed concerns over China’s expansion, fortification and militarization of small islets that it controls in the resource-rich area and have cited possible threats to the free movement of international shipping and aircraft,” the Japanese daily added.
Australia is one of the few U.S. allies openly standing up to China in the region. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been calling for an independent inquiry into Beijing’s handling of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak. “Now, it would seem entirely reasonable and sensible that the world would want to have an independent assessment of how this all occurred, so we can learn the lessons and prevent it from happening again,” Morrison said on April 29.
China responded to this demand by threatening to boycott Australian goods. Beijing has also been waging a trade war with the country, imposing crippling 80 percent tariffs on Australian grain exports. The India-Australia strategic agreement “comes as both countries attempt to counter rising Chinese influence in the Pacific, and amid Australia’s stoush [clash] with China over an investigation into the origins of coronavirus and a decision by Beijing to impose an 80 per cent tariff on Australian barley,” Australian public broadcaster SBS noted.
The strong alliance between India and Australia is key to countering Communist China’s military build-up in the region. As I wrote in my article published by the Gatestone Institute on May 19: the “world is looking to India and its Asian Pacific allies, in a strong alliance with the West, to take a stand and face China’s increasing military, geopolitical and economic intimidation.”
‘India and Australia join hands to counter China’
[Cover image via YouTube]
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Comments
For 40 years China has been very patient, expanding and pulling back as events dictated, but always advancing overall. But no more. Between their declining work force (due to their one baby policy) and Trump, they are acting rashly, and as a result uniting the regional powers against them. Expect more of this.
India is a potent foe to China, because of it’s equally great population, it’s advancing military and its nuclear weaponry. Australia has a lot of advanced military capability, but zero nukes and a rather tiny population (24 million or so). Though it does have land and a strategic location. And no plague of treason and corruption in its institutions, as in the US. Nor do they have a class of abject morons in their legislature, as America does.
The ChiComms are probably confident that the US military in Asia will soon look behind it and find there is no America to support it anymore.
PDJT is great, but after seeing witnessing the plague of treason and corruption in our government, hollywood, education, news – and now witnessing the violent self-destuctive behavior of a generation of liteally the most useful idiots in world history – America is permenantly fractured. I think our only hope to presever our way of life is to split up the nation.
Good work, swamp/left/islamic axis. You deseve kudos. And destruction.
I’m always amazed at discussions of chinese transgression and military conflict that leave out the most important part – nuclear capability.
No country with nuclear weapons is going to fight any sort of land war with troops with china on anything other than a skirmish scale.
Australia needs to nuke up and until they do they partner with those that have them.
China has difficult times ahead. With an advance now stymied by America, and nuclear powers all around opposing the communist expansion they will have serious internal problems soon enough. Those internal problems are always there, just unreported. Let the 200 million newly out pf poverty population feel hunger and the game changes.
Barry, the 1st cold war was fought indirectly through proxy wars, in places like Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, El Salvador, Cuba, Iran, and Afghanistan. The same will likely be true in this new cold war 2.0, where neither side can risk a direct confrontation. China would be foolish to fight a real war against an allied US, India, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. If Trump wins in November we should expect someone like Iran to start making trouble, perhaps with some nice, new Chinese weapons.
I lived through the Cold War Version 1.0, born in ’53.
As I mentioned in my comment – “…on anything other than a skirmish scale.” – I understand there will be hotspots on occasion.
Now, let’s be honest – Why did we have protracted “proxy wars in places like Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, El Salvador, Cuba, Iran, and Afghanistan.”?
Because we refused to take the fight to the enemy in Vietnam and Korea, and entered civil wars in El Salvador and Afghanistan. Cuba we had near zero involvement on the ground, Iran much the same. Grenada was short and sweet.
So a couple stories. I was working in Switzerland and went to a ski resort for a break. My agent picked me up and asked me if I wanted the good news or the bad first. I said start with the bad. Hezbollah/Iran blew up the Marine barracks in Lebanon killing 241 Marines. The good news, Reagan invaded Grenada.
I visited San Salvador several weeks after the cease fire, all the machine gun sandbag emplacements were still there, but unmanned. I sat at an outdoor table at a restaurant located just a block or so from the US embassy, about a table away from the location where four of our Marines were assassinated in 1985. My hotel was heavily guarded, multiple guards around the clock.
Australia lacks nukes true, but it does operate one nuclear reactor, and has the largest uranium reserves on the planet – almost 13x those of the US!
Given a change to a pro-nuke culture, Australia could easily become a nuclear state on par with France or India. Its small population and massive size mean it won’t be able to provide a significant conventional deterrent, but it could easily support a significant nuclear force.
China is making its bed. Arrogance is doing them in.
And the lefties who want to defund the military, we can just send their email addresses to China and say Hack Away.