THE ELEPHANT KANGAROO DANCE

The first official visit of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to India has given a bullish push to the strategic and trade ties between both countries.

- Anshu Kumar

Introduction

The burgeoning relationship between Canberra and New Delhi seems to grow out of the changing dynamics of power in the region.

Since 2017, this three-day official visit to India is the first one by an Australian PM. Australia is one of the four countries with which Indian conduct annual summits. This visit was one of such annual bilateral summits.

Alarmed by a belligerent China, both countries are actively engaging with each other in various bilateral and multilateral fora to seek lesser dependence on China.

The ‘Structural’ Factor

The warm amicability between New Delhi and Canberra in recent years is not solely a product of bilateral push, but largely a reflection of changing dynamics of power in the Indo-Pacific region. Decades of dormancy in Indo-Australia relations have been overcome by an active strategic relationship, thanks to the common factor— the Dragon.

Confronting an aggressive China in the Himalayas has made the ‘shy’ elephant an active player within and beyond the QUAD groupings. Likewise, the Beijing-Canberra ties got stained, after the latter banned Huawei from its 5G technology, and hit a low ebb when the former cascaded trade and diplomatic frictions following Canberra’s call for an inquiry into the origins of COVID-19. In 2022, China’s security pact with the Solomon Islands raised eyebrows in the defence citadel of Australia.

Perceiving a common threat in the region, both countries are now actively engaging with each other on several pretexts— trade, education, defence, culture, and people-to-people ties.