This year is the fifth anniversary of the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP), during which time the bilateral has seen a significant evolution, undeterred by transitions of power in Canberra. It has made India and Australia one of the most stable relationships in a world whose long-established order is undergoing rapid change.
The CSP was signed in 2020 to boost defence and security ties between the two Indian Ocean nations as well as to enhance trade and investments. The world was just coming out of the pandemic-induced lockdown.
But the foundations for the partnership had been laid earlier, from 2009, when India and Australia elevated their relationship to the level of Strategic Partnership. Since then, defense and security had been steadily intensifying, setting the stage for even closer collaboration.
The first economic outcome of the CSP was the India-Australia Economic and Cooperation Trade Agreement, or ECTA, the first of the two-part Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) that is currently under negotiation.
As a result of the ECTA, perceptions about each other’s economies and markets have undergone a sea-change. The 2018 report by former Australian Foreign Secretary Peter Varghese – An India Economic Strategy to 2035 – stated “no market over the next 20 years offers more growth opportunities for Australian business than India.” It set out a 10-fold growth in Australian investment into India to $100 billion by 2035.[1]
The ECTA provides Indian producers of traditional exports such as textiles, leather, furniture, jewelry and machinery, zero-duty access for about 96.4% of such goods (by value) or 98% of the trade tariff lines. Around 113 remaining tariff lines – amounting to 3% of Indian exports – were set to be phased out over five years. In the non-agricultural sector, there is an exclusion list of items like silver, platinum, jewellery and iron ore for Australian exports.
The ECTA has also seen high utilisation rates. In the first two-year of the ECTA says India’s commerce ministry, 79% of Indian exports to Australia and 84% of Australia’s exports to India were utilising ECTA preferences. This is in line with India’s increasing exports to Australia, up 66% in the last five years, nearly twice the 37% growth in the country’s global exports, according to Gateway House research.
According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, export utilisation under the ECTA reached 79% after two years of implementation, while import utilisation stood at 84 % in 2023-24.
Australia has been able to export 200 items to India for the first time – such as avocados, fresh salmon, pine wood, rock lobsters, a range of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, electric motors, generators, astroturf and fiber glass.
The Australian avocado is charting a new growth story in India even as New Delhi will be eliminating 30% duty on avocados by 2028 under ECTA. A Queensland-based export firm, The Avolution, says it has been shipping 150 containers of avocados per year to Asia and the Gulf region, including India where demand is rocketing.
Australian sheep meat has seen a surge in demand in India, thanks to tariffs being reduced from 30% to nil. This gives Australian lamb exporters a competitive advantage in the Indian market. Mulwarra Export Pty Limited, a Sydney-based meat exporter that ships to more than 35 countries, including India, says Australian meat suppliers now have an advantage in the Indian market compared to competitors from New Zealand. The latter has had a 73% dominant share of the Indian market but with Australian meat exports to India doubling in 2023 and 2024, it is capturing Indian consumers.[2]
The CECA will build on these positive trends and expand the trading relationship to areas such as government procurement, digital trade and rules origin, as also further ease the Indian market for Australian wines and dairy products.
Other key initiatives include the India-Australia Critical Minerals Investment Partnership (CMIP) and the Australia-India Critical Minerals Research Hub, which will help counter China’s dominance in that field.
The relationship’s pivotal turn was 2014 when Prime Minister Modi visited Australia and the two countries finalised a civil nuclear agreement for uranium supply, a landmark decision recognising India’s strong commitment to non-proliferation. This arrangement not only solidified trust but also represented a significant stride towards greater collaboration in energy security and resources. India has not bought much uranium from Australia, but Don Farrell, Australia’s Trade minister recently told Gateway House in Canberra that the potential of exporting this mineral remains high.
“I come from South Australia, and Olympic Dam is the world’s largest uranium mine. Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP) has an ambition to double the size of that mine… we have the opportunity to continue to supply uranium to those countries that meet all the relevant international obligations,” he said.
The Civil Nuclear Agreement has also attracted private Indian investment, primarily The Adani Australia Carmichael Project, a coal mine in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, which began operations in 2021 after more than a decade of development and public opposition.
The well-rounded bilateral includes the growing strategic defence partnership between India and Australia as both countries respond to changing regional security dynamics in the Indo‑Pacific. In the last five years too, the defence and security partnership has expanded. The two countries regular bilateral and multilateral naval, air and land exercises to build interoperability and maritime domain awareness.
AUSINDEX, is a naval exercise between Australia and India that began in 2015. In 2020, the Malabar exercises involving India, the U.S., Japan, and Australia were initiated. A year later, the Mutual Logistics Support Arrangement (MLSA) was signed in 2021. The MLSA has enhanced military interoperability between the armed forces of both countries by facilitating complex military engagement and has enhanced combined responsiveness to regional humanitarian disasters. It has the potential to let Indian and Australian armed forces to use each other’s military facilities during war time.
This July, India participated in Australia’s biggest wargame Talisman Sabre 2025 and before the year is out, Australia will dispatch its first ever defence trade delegation to India with the objective of co-production of select platforms and export of components to India.
Australia and India are now top-tier security partners as they share a common agenda of strategic convergence in the Indo-Pacific region. Australia’s National Defence Strategy 2024 has recommended expansion of defence industry cooperation with India.
According to the Australian Government’s New Roadmap for Australia’s Economic Engagement with India, while some of the steps taken by the Modi government have been positive such as streamlining of licensing requirements and foreign investment liberalisation, “India’s focus on increasing domestic production may limit some opportunities. Joint ventures and partnerships between Australian and Indian companies are the most likely mechanisms for entry into the Indian market.”
The big engagement is in the field of education. Here the CSP has been effective with marquee Australian universities planning to open their campuses in India – Deakin University and University of Wollongong already have, and others like University of Western Australia will follow.
In 2023, both nations signed the all-important Mutual Recognition of Qualifications agreement, making it easier for students, researchers and academics to study and work in each other’s countries.
However, the current anti-immigration rallies taking place across Australia coupled with ‘Go Back’ slogans can bring tension to the bilateral ties. The rallies, mostly organised by a group called March for Australia, are specifically targeted against Indian immigrants. India’s foreign ministry has raised the matter with Canberra which, on its part, has cracked down on the protests, describing the protestors as Neo-Nazis.
These strains will be overcome, especially as India-Australia trade and investment ties deepen. As tensions rise between the U.S. and India over trade and tariffs and as New Delhi continues to pursue a strategy of multi-alignment in an increasingly complex global landscape, India’s growing partnership with Australia establishes the latter as a dependable ally for New Delhi in the Indo-Pacific region. Through this alliance, both countries will surely enhance their agility and inter-reliability in navigating the complexities of geopolitical dynamics, providing stability in this strategic region.
Nayanima Basu is a journalist who writes on issues of foreign policy and is the author of “The Fall of Kabul: Despatches from Chaos”.
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References:
[1] Gateway House, Indian Council on Global Relations. “India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement: A Case Study in Overcoming Reticence and Establishing Trust.” https://www.gatewayhouse.in/india-australia-economic-cooperation-and-trade-agreement-a-case-study-in-overcoming-reticence-and-establishing-trust/
[2] Austrade. “Aussie Lamb Cooking Up Export Success in India.” News & Analysis, Austrade, 2025. https://www.austrade.gov.au/en/news-and-analysis/news/aussie-lamb-cooking-up-export-success-in-india#:~:text=Rapid%20growth%20in%20exports,New%20Zealand%20struggled%20with%20disruptions.