Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold the second India-Australia Virtual Summit on 21 March 2022.
Both leaders will focus on the progress made on various initiatives under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
PM Morrison said in a statement, “I am pleased to announce that I will host the Honourable Mr Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of the Republic of India, for a Virtual Annual Leaders’ Meeting.”
Australia and India’s strong bilateral relationship is based on mutual understanding and trust, a commitment to democracy, and a shared vision of an open, inclusive, resilient and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
“Prime Minister Modi and I will discuss deepening our trade and investment relationship and harnessing new economic opportunities to support our mutual economic recovery and growth,”
He added.
A range of regional and multilateral issues, including the situation in Ukraine and its implications for the Indo-Pacific, and Myanmar will also be on table for discussions.
The Summit follows the historic first Virtual Summit of 4 June 2020 when the relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
It is expected that the both leaders will commit to closer cooperation in trade, critical minerals, migration and mobility, and education, among others.
“I look forward to reaffirming our Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and advancing our shared bilateral and regional agenda,”
said PM Morrison
Views on regional and international issues of mutual interest will also be discussed. The Summit highlights the importance attached by both countries to their bilateral relations as also their close cooperation on regional and global issues.
This virtual summit will lay the way forward on new initiatives and enhanced cooperation in a diverse range of sectors between India and Australia.
The India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership has maintained the momentum of an upward trajectory with both countries continuing to collaborate closely, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, in wide-ranging areas including science and technology, defence, cyber, critical and strategic materials, water resource management, as well as public administration and governance.
Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Morrison met in Washington DC for the first in-person meeting after the Covid-19 pandemic in September 2021 on the margins of the Quad Leaders’ Summit and jointly launched the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS) in Glasgow on the margins of the COP26 in November 2021.
