THE REVIEW OF THE INDIAN PRESS Indian Dailies, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Australia visit defined as growing bilateral relationship between India and Australia. The current governments in both countries appear willing to go the extra mile. Prime Minister’s outreach reverses Delhi’s past diffidence and reticence and activates the diaspora for mobilising resources and opinion. THE HINDUSTAN TIMES in its editorial heading THE OZFEST IS UP AND RUNNING, MATE says that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott have scripted a new moment in India-Australia ties putting to rest the fitful gestures of drawing closer in the past. The reasons for strengthening ties are obvious - New Delhi is interested in Australia’s natural resource exports while Canberra is of India’s vast market for its services. Mr. Modi’s visit provided the direction of India-Australia ties. Both countries have agreed on an action plan to consolidate contact among their strategic elites. In addition to annual summits, India and Australia will have meetings of foreign and defence ministers, senior diplomats, regular maritime exercises and high-level dialogue on counter-terrorism, maritime security and cyber security. In a well-received address to the Australian parliament, Prime Minister Narendra Modi memorably underlined that Australia will not be at the periphery of India’s vision but at the centre of New Delhi’s thought. He said “Australia as a major partner in every area of our national priority” including infrastructure, skills, education, agriculture energy, manufacturing, finance and technology and exhorting them to invest in India’s growth project. India, he said, will be the answer to Australia’s search for new economic opportunities and its desire for a more diversified global economic engagement. The India-Australia relationship will now be one to look out for in the fast evolving Asia Pacific region. The India-Australia relationship will now be one to look out for in the fast evolving Asia Pacific region. THE HINDU in its editorial heading NEW CLARITY TO TIES WITH AUSTRALIA says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia was long overdue, coming 28 years after Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi travelled to the continent. While the invitation to Brisbane for the G-20 summit took Mr. Modi there, the decision to travel to three other Australian cities, at a time when he had other pressing domestic commitments, was well considered. His address to the diaspora in Sydney generated much enthusiasm among the often ignored but influential community, and his address to parliamentarians was well received. As a result, his meeting with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has seen relations being upgraded and imparted with clarity. The focus was much required. Even as India and Australia work towards a free trade agreement by 2016, bilateral trade between the two countries has lagged considerably behind the potential. The actual trade languishes at just 15 billion dollars, against a 40 billion dollars target by 2015, set during former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s bilateral meeting with former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2012. Smoothening investment procedures for Australian businessmen even as Indian businessmen are invited into Australia to buy coal mines and invest in infrastructure for other mineral resources, must be taken up as a priority. THE INDIAN EXPRESS in its editorial heading PLUNGING DOWN UNDER says that India’s bilateral relationship with Australia has undergone a sea change since the Cold War and the aftermath of India’s nuclear tests in 1998. Successive Australian and Indian administrations have since given shape to what may emerge soon as a key economic and security partnership in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) and the Asia-Pacific — against the backdrop of a rising China, with its growing assertiveness on territorial disputes, and an uncertain US policy in the region. Mr. Modi’s addresses at Madison Square Garden in New York or at All phones Arena in Sydney, has brought Indian communities abroad to the forefront of foreign policy. _________________________
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 09:14:13 +0000
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