The Hindu : Front Page : Australia for practical military cooperation with India

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Tuesday, Jun 03, 2008
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Australia for practical military cooperation with India

P.S. Suryanarayana

The two countries already have a high degree of trust between one another, says its Defence Minister

Says Canberra can learn from New Delhi’s expertise in counter-terrorism
Australia does not want its ties with China and India to be a zero-sum game

Joel Fitzgibbon

SINGAPORE: Australia, under the new Kevin Rudd government, intends to engage India in “closer practical military cooperation, particularly in the Indian Ocean region.” And, “the starting point is the two countries already have a high degree of trust between one another.”

Potential

Outlining the “potential” for a new take-off from this “platform” of mutual trust and compatible democracies, Australian Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon told The Hindu that “maritime security and counter-terrorism” were already identified for enhanced cooperation “in the first instance.” India, he said, “has great expertise in counter-terrorism, and we think we can learn from that.”

In an exclusive interview, after the conclusion of the seventh Asia Security Summit organised here by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, Mr. Fitzgibbon said: “I don’t exclude anything from the dialogue” with India in the defence domain.

He was responding to specific questions about the possibilities of India-Australia cooperation on matters relating to “network-centric warfare, missile defence, and outer space-oriented preparedness.”

Mr. Fitzgibbon said: “You almost drove me into operational issues now. While I have had a number of conversations with the Indian junior Defence Minister [M.M. Pallam Raju, on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit in Singapore], I wouldn’t want to pre-empt more, formal, discussions on the practical ways in which we can develop our cooperation. We are both ‘Western democracies,’ sharing many of the same values; and that’s a great starting point for any further discussions.”

He was emphatic, however, that “the new government [in Canberra], at this point in time, has not turned its mind to any decision about a quadrilateral relationship [among Australia, India, Japan, and the United States].” The idea, first mooted by Japan about two years ago, has been opposed in some East Asian quarters. Yet, Australia would not see its own ties with China and India through the “prism” of any zero-sum games.

India a key player

As Australia “develops a new white paper on defence this year, we will be looking to India as very much a strategic player for global security and security in the [Asian] region.” As for Beijing’s strategic relevance to Canberra, he said: “The only country that has a stronger economic relationship with Australia [than China] is the United States of America.”

Engaging the U.S.

Asked about the signs that the Kevin Rudd government would think totally out of the box in engaging the U.S., Mr. Fitzgibbon said: “It is true that we are putting a greater emphasis on our own region, but the U.S. is an important player in that equation as well. We are absolutely committed to [Australia’s] U.S. alliance. It is one of the first pillars of our defence policy and will continue to be so into the future.”

About the Australian Labour Party’s signature tune on Iraq in this context, the Defence Minister said: “We have promised to have our troops out by mid-year, and they shall be.”

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