INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
NEW DELHI: India and Australia held the second edition of their two-plus-two ministerial dialogue with foreign minister S Jaishankar and
defence minister Rajnath Singh discussing ways with their counterparts, Penny Wong and Richard Marles, respectively, to strengthen defence
expansionist muscle-flexing in the Indo-Pacific figuring on their radars, the two countries decided to further crank up their overall
bilateral defence-strategic ties, including cooperation in information exchange, maritime domain awareness and niche areas like AI, cyber,
Beijing also strong-arms its smaller neighbours in the South China and East China Seas as well as the Taiwan Strait.Singh, on his part, said
important we regard India and our relationship with India in a difficult world, particularly in the IOR..
We have a deep strategic alignment
emphasising that the armed forces of the two countries should enhance cooperation in niche training areas like AI, cyber, anti-submarine and
anti-drone warfare, Singh said shipbuilding, ship repair and aircraft MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) could also be potential areas
cricketIndia and Australia already have a mutual logistics support arrangement (MLSA), which was inked in June 2020 and provides for
India has such reciprocal military logistics pacts with the US and Japan as well as other countries like France, South Korea and
Singapore.On Monday, the two ministers agreed that deepening cooperation in defence industry and research would also give a fillip to the
already strong relationship, while they also discussed cooperation for joint research in underwater technologies.WatchWatch: Australia
deputy PM Richard Marles uses UPI payments
