New Delhi: A bilateral virtual meeting is scheduled to be held between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in the first week of June. The ‘Defence Logistics Pact’, between India and Australia, will be concluded during this meeting. Against this background, Indian Defence Minster Rajnath Singh and Australian Defence Minister Linda Reynolds head a telephonic discussion, on Tuesday. Since the last few weeks, relations between India and Australia have become strategically important in view of the aggressive Chinese movements and the increasing tension between India and China.
The Defence Ministers of India and Australia discussed the Coronavirus crisis and defence cooperation. All the details of the discussion have bot been revealed. But this discussion becomes very important ahead of the virtual meeting, between the Prime Ministers of both the countries, to he held in June. It is said that this discussion was a preparation for the meeting between the Prime Ministers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison will be signing the Defence Logistics Pact during the June meeting. The pact has been discussed during the India-Australia meetings, before this. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was to visit India, in the month of January and the pact was to be signed during the visit. But there were massive forest fires in Australia and Prime Minister Morrison was forced to cancel his India visit. Now, the pact will be signed during the virtual meeting in June.
Since the last few months, tension between Australia and China has increased tremendously. Australia has made an insistent demand that an independent inquiry should be held in the Coronavirus spread in the world, which originated from China. The aggressive Australian stance in the matter regarding the South China Sea, added to the Chinese Ire. China even warned Australia of dire consequences. With the increasing tension, indications are that the trade relations between China and Australia will apparently come to an end. In this scenario, the Australian government has delivered another jolt to China, by improving trade ties with India. This increases the strategic importance of the trade and defence related cooperation between India and Australia.
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