The Australian Consulate-General, Chennai hosted a panel discussion on “India and Australia as Partners in the Indo-Pacific” at the Asian College of Journalism on September 13. The panel comprised Lisa Singh, former Australian senator and CEO of the Australia India Institute at the University of Melbourne and Dr D Dhanuraj, Founder-Chairman of the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR). The discussion was moderated by the Australian Deputy Consul-General, David Eggleston.   

Lisa Singh mainly looked at the deepening bond between the two nations and their partnership in shaping the future of a region that is rapidly becoming the most consequential area of global power dynamics.  She said the two nations stood as pillars of stability, cooperation, and shared interests in tackling challenges from geopolitical tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the Korean Peninsula to piracy in the Malacca Strait.

“India and Australia are proving that by working together, security can indeed be a catalyst for development, and development, in turn, can enhance security,” she said. 

Dr Dhanuraj, highlighted the strategic partnership in: defence, by means of training Indian officers in Malabar Naval Exercise; underwater technology and research; hydrographic cooperation; counter terrorism efforts by means of combating radicalisation, sharing intelligence and working on cyber security.

Eggleston  emphasized the importance of India and Australia working more closely together in the Indo-Pacific region. He pointed out that the Australia-India Comprehensive and Strategic Partnership, announced in 2020, provides a framework that allows the connections of the two nations to continue to grow. 

“Southern India is the closest point to Australia, so we expect to see growing trade,” he said, pointing to  the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) between India and Australia, which came into force in December 2022.

Earlier, ACJ Dean Dr Nalini Rajan welcomed the gathering and introduced the panellists.