Australia India to seek closer economic ties critical minerals co-operation World News
Reuters
May 24, 2023
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attend a community event at Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, Australia, on May 23, 2023.
PHOTO: Reuters
SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met Narendra Modi, his Indian counterpart, in Sydney on Wednesday (May 24) to discuss regional security and economic ties and signed a migration deal to boost Indian student and business travel to Australia.
Modi is visiting Australia for the first time since 2014, and two months after Albanese travelled to India.
India and Australia are members of the Quad group of nations, which also includes Japan and the United States. Modi continued with his visit to Sydney after a Quad leaders meeting in the city was cancelled when US President Joe Biden was forced to return to Washington from a G7 summit in Tokyo for debt ceiling negotiations.
The Quad meeting was held on the sidelines of the summit.
"Quad leaders stand together for an open, stable, secure and prosperous Indo Pacific region... where all countries large and small benefit from a regional balance that keeps the peace," Albanese told reporters after a bilateral meeting with Modi.
They had also discussed trade, migration and renewable energy, and the two nations had established a hydrogen task force to expand cooperation on clean energy, he said.
Australia, whose largest trading partner is China, is seeking to diversify its export markets, including forging closer trade ties with India.
Wednesday, May 24, 2023 at 6:51 am