Australia - India Relations

The India-Australia Economic and Cooperation Trade Agreement (Ind-Aus ECTA), which is expected to double trade between the two countries to $50 Bn, came into effect on 29th December 2022. Explore More

MoU on mines safety: In Jan 2019, Directorate general of mines safety (DGMS), Government of India and Department of natural resource mines and energy, Queensland Government, Australia signed an MoU on mines safety.
 

Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement: Signed between the two countries in September 2014 during the visit of the then PM Tony Abbott to India. The agreement came into force from 13 November 2015 and provides the framework for substantial new trade in energy between Australia and India.
 

Australia-India Strategic Research Fund (AISRF): The two countries have identified a number of collaborative research projects in areas such as agricultural research, astronomy and astrophysics, environmental sciences, microelectronics, nanotechnology, renewable energy, marine sciences and earth systems sciences.
 

Joint Working Group on Energy and Minerals: Established in 1999 to expand bilateral relationship in the energy and resources sector.
 

Joint Working Group on Education: The two countries have identified several key areas for co-operation, including collaborative research in education policy, student exchange programs, capacity building in vocational education and distance learning in higher education.
 

Commercial Dialogue: Australia-India Commercial Dialogue is set up to discuss trade and commerce relations and highlight key issues that affect business entities. The aim of this alliance is to identify areas for closer collaboration for mutual benefit of both economies.
 

Australia-India CEO Forum: The CEO Forum is a platform to highlight key issues that affect business entities and to identify areas for closer collaboration for mutual benefit of both economies. 

Presidents of Australia and India along with counterparts of USA and Japan convened first in-person Leaders’ Summit of the Quad on ambitious initiatives that deepen the ties and advance practical cooperation on 21st-century challenges.

 

Australia, India and Japan launched the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) in April 2021 to create a virtuous cycle of enhancing supply chain resilience with a view to eventually attaining strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth in the region.

Australia is the 17th largest trading partner of India and India is Australia’s 9th largest trading partner.

India and Australia sign MoU on Tourism cooperation to help give fillip to tourism post pandemic between the two countries

India and Australia had 6th meeting of Australia India Education Council (AIEC) to strengthen cooperation in education, skill development, research, innovation, and entrepreneurship

India- Australia to commence the landmark General Rawat Young Defence Officer Exchange Programme in the latter half of 2022

India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission: India-Australia Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC) was established in 1989 to enable interaction at a Government and business level on a range of trade and investment related issues. 
 

FDI Equity Investment in India: India received $1,077 Mn in FDI (equity inflows) from Australia between April 2000 to December 2022. Over the last few years, key sectors such as infrastructure have attracted the highest investment from Australian investors.

India and Australia sign Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) to increase the bilateral trade to $50 bn in next five years and $100 Bn by 2030.

In 2020, India was Australia's seventh largest trading partner and was the third largest market for services exports. The two-way trade was valued at $24.3 Bn, and the sixth largest goods and services export market, valued at $16.9 Bn.

The Indian community in Australia continues to grow in size and importance, with the population of nearly 7 lakhs. 

India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia. There is a constant flow of students and tourists from India.

The number of Indian students continue to grow with approximately 90,000 students presently studying in Australian universities. 

India is now the third largest source of immigrants to Australia, after UK and New Zealand and the largest source of skilled professionals for Australia. 

The growing significance of the community is reflected in the large-scale celebration of Indian festivals in Australia, especially Deepawali. 

1. In 2021 Census, India has moved past China and New Zealand to become the third largest country of birth in Australia behind Australia and England
2. Punjabi language had the largest increase of over 80 per cent from 2016 showing over 239,000  people using Punjabi at home in Australia