New Delhi: Having a shared interest in promoting maritime security and safety, the navies of India and Australia will deepen their cooperation and strengthen maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific region through enhanced exchange of information.
India and Australia will also work to enhance civil maritime cooperation between law enforcement agencies and coast guard cooperation.
In his first-ever Virtual Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday discussed maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
Both the prime ministers decided on a Shared Vision for Maritime Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region to harness opportunities and meet challenges together as Comprehensive Strategic Partners.
During the virtual summit, both the countries reiterated their commitment to promoting peace, security, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region.
They have a shared interest in ensuring freedom of navigation and overflight in the Indo-Pacific region and maintaining open, safe and efficient sea lanes for transportation and communication.
“With a shared maritime geography and a deep and long-standing friendship, India and Australia are natural partners to work together towards realisation of this shared vision,” the joint declaration on a Shared Vision for Maritime Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific between India and Australia said.
“India and Australia are committed to supporting a rules-based maritime order that is based on respect for sovereignty and international law, particularly the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS),” it added.
“They have common concerns regarding the strategic, security and environmental challenges in the Indo-Pacific maritime domain. These include activities and actions in the maritime domain that are inconsistent with international law, particularly UNCLOS, including terrorism, piracy, drugs and arms smuggling, irregular migration, people smuggling, trafficking in human beings, poaching of marine species, narcotics trafficking and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing,” it added.
The region’s environmental challenges, such as marine pollution, climate change, ocean acidification, shortage of potable water, loss of habitat due to storm surges and saline water intrusion, are also of shared concern.
Given the importance they attach to ensuring sustainable use of living and non-living marine resources in the Indo-Pacific region, they committed to protecting the Indo-Pacific marine environment and reducing the impact of marine pollution, particularly plastics, and climate change.
India and Australia will work together bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally, and in minilateral arrangements, to support regional architecture in line with their shared values and interests, the joint declaration said.
India and Australia welcomed the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific.
In this context, India and Australia will work closely to develop, with all interested partners, the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the 14th East Asia Summit on November 4, 2019 at Bangkok.
Through this Initiative, they will endeavour to improve the management of the shared oceanic domains, including in key areas of cooperation such as preserving the maritime ecology and reducing the impact of marine pollution (especially plastics); maritime security; sustainable use of marine resources; capacity building and resource sharing; disaster risk reduction and management; science, technology and academic cooperation; and trade, connectivity and maritime transport.
Both countries have reiterated their commitment to ASEAN centrality and unity and will strengthen their coordination in regional and multilateral fora, such as the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN Defence Ministers Meeting-Plus, the Indian Ocean Rim Association, the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission and the International Maritime Organization, to achieve their shared vision for maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
India and Australia share a strong bilateral relationship, underpinned by ongoing cooperation across many areas of mutual interest.
This cooperation includes the Australia-India Framework for Security Cooperation, regular dialogues involving Ministers responsible for foreign, defence and trade policy, and a broad range of senior officials meetings, such as the Defence Policy Talks, Australia-India Maritime Dialogue and Navy to Navy Staff Talks.
Both the countries will work jointly towards implementation of an Action Plan with specific measures to advance their bilateral maritime cooperation in line with this Vision.
