In a virtual summit Monday with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison slammed “Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine” and said Moscow must be held accountable for the loss of lives.
While Modi, in his public remarks, did not say anything on the situation in Ukraine, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla later said Morrison expressed his understanding of India’s position on the crisis in Ukraine, and that he and Modi were of the opinion that the conflict could not be a reason for diverting attention from issues of the Indo-Pacific region.
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The two leaders also discussed the situation along the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and Modi told Morrison that peace and tranquillity in the region was essential for normalisation of Delhi’s ties with Beijing, officials said.
These two topics of discussion — Ukraine and China — were similar to the discussion themes last Saturday between Modi and visiting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. But unlike Canberra which said it understands Delhi’s position on Ukraine, Tokyo has been silent.
After the virtual summit, it was decided that India and Australia will hold summits every year. At present, India has the tradition of annual summits between leaders with only two countries — Russia and Japan. Australia becomes the third country – this means that Prime Ministers of the two countries will visit each other every year, in an alternate manner.
Speaking at the summit, Morrison said, “Our region is facing increasing change and much pressure, and I think our Quad leaders’ call recently, which gave us the opportunity to discuss Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine, also gave us the opportunity to discuss implications and consequences of that terrible event for our own region in the Indo-Pacific and the coercion and the issues that we face here.”
“The tragic loss of life underlies the importance, of course, of holding Russia to account. But cooperation between like-minded liberal democracies is key to an open and inclusive and resilient and prosperous Indo-Pacific, and I welcome your leadership within the Quad to keep us focused on those important issues,” he said, linking the Russian aggression in Europe to Chinese belligerence in the Indo-Pacific.
Modi too spoke of the Indo-Pacific in the context of Quad. “There is also good cooperation between us in the Quad framework. Our cooperation under the Quad demonstrates our commitment towards a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific. The success of Quad is essential for regional and global stability,” he said.
Last month, when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar travelled to Australia, he and counterpart Marise Payne had agreed on the Chinese behaviour along the LAC, but there were divergences in their public statements on the Russia-Ukraine situation.
Unlike its Quad partners — US, Japan and Australia — India has not condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and has been maintaining that the crisis should be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.
On Ukraine, Morrison expressed understanding of India’s position which he felt “definitely reflected our own situation (and) our own considerations,” Shringla said during the briefing on the summit.
“There was a clear sense that both sides understood where they came from and there was a great deal of comfort in the fact that both of us saw the fact that conflict in Europe should not be a reason for us to divert our attention from the Indo-Pacific region and that our position as far as the Quad is concerned also was on similar lines,” he said.
Shringla said there was equal emphasis by both that the international order stands on the UN Charter, rule of law and respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty of states.
The two leaders also discussed economic ties, and Modi said the conclusion of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) will be important for economic revival and economic security for both sides.
Morrison said, “We will redouble our efforts on our interim Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement to unlock new opportunities and benefits for both our economies. It will bring us closer to a full agreement as soon as I hope we can achieve that.”
Shringla said India and Australia were keen to finalise the CECA as it will unlock new opportunities to expand bilateral trade and investment ties. He also said that the two sides are concerned about the situation in Myanmar and want protection of civilians and release of detained leaders and activists.
Modi said ties between India and Australia have witnessed remarkable progress in the last few years and there has been close cooperation in trade and investment, defence and security, education and innovation, and science and technology.
He welcomed the announcement of the establishment of a Centre of Excellence for Critical and Emerging Technologies in Bengaluru.
Modi said he was happy over the establishment of a mechanism of the annual summit between the two countries as it ensures a structural system for regular review of the ties.
Stressing that they have made “great progress in defence, maritime cooperation, science, technology, clean energy” as well, Morrison said: “Our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, though, reflects the ambition that we share and we hold for our relationship, and the pace and scale of that cooperation, since we lifted ties back in 2020, has been remarkable. But I am ambitious, as I know you are, to make it even closer, particularly when it comes to our economic cooperation, which I hope we are able to advance further today.”
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