Australian Army Chief's Visit Reinforces Indian Land Forces' Central Role in Indo-Pacific Stability

When the Australian Army Chief, Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, lands in India for his official visit from August 10-14, 2025, it won't just be another high-level military courtesy call.

- ASHISH SINGH

For the Indian Army, this is about cementing a partnership that is moving well beyond symbolic gestures into the realm of serious, structured cooperation.

For too long, public debate around the Indo-Pacific has been dominated by images of warships and maritime manoeuvres. Yet the ground reality—quite literally—is that land forces are just as critical to keeping the region stable, resilient, and prepared. In that space, the India-Australia Army-to-Army relationship is becoming one of the region's most quietly consequential alignments.

Discussion of the Indo-Pacific almost always centres on sea lanes, chokepoints, and naval firepower. This makes sense given the geography. But it also risks underplaying a hard truth: without capable, well-connected land forces, no amount of naval deterrence can guarantee stability.

Humanitarian assistance after cyclones, stabilisation in restive areas, counter-terrorism, or even reassuring smaller nations through training missions—these are all land-centric missions. Both India and Australia, as continental powers with expeditionary capability, understand this reality well.

Their evolving Army partnership reflects a shared belief that credible land capabilities, backed by deep professional trust, are not a "nice-tohave" but an essential layer in the Indo-Pacific's security architecture.

AUSTRAHIND: TRAINING TOGETHER FOR MODERN THREATS Nothing illustrates this better than Exercise AUSTRAHIND, the flagship bilateral field exercise between the two armies. First held in 2016, it began as a focused counter-terrorism drill.

Over time, it has grown into a full-spectrum training engagement that blends closequarter battle, joint tactical planning, and interoperability in complex terrain.