By IANS,
New Delhi : Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard Wednesday pressed for a broader and deeper partnership with India, beyond trade in commodities, with investment in energy, services and financials and closer defence and security interactions.
“For Australia, our goal is for a partnership with India, which reflects your standing along with the US, Japan, China, Indonesia and the Republic of Korea, as one of the handful of countries which matter most to Australia,” Gillard told a business audience here.
She said the dramatic changes in Asia are creating new patterns of growth and India is changing through important economic reforms in areas like energy, aviation and retail.
“We both have huge energy needs… India’s energy needs are going to increase sharply… There is a good potential for partnership in energy sector,” Gillard told a gathering of Indian business leaders in the Indian capital.
Gillard said both the countries have agreed for joint research and development in areas like clean energy, water efficiency and sustainable agriculture.
“We are looking forward to a truly liberalizing and comprehensive Australia-India Economic Cooperation Agreement so that investment can flow,” said Gillard, who is aiming to take the focus away from commodities to facilitating Australia’s services sector to build a firmer presence in the Indian market.
The two nations are negotiating a free trade agreement and goods and services. Australia says it faces large non-tariff barriers and regulatory uncertainty to trade and investment in India.
Investment between India and Australia so far has been low but is increasing. A number of Indian companies such as the GVK and Adani Groups have begun investing in Australian mining operations.
The Australian premier, on a three-day visit which began Monday, also said the two countries have set a goal of doubling bilateral trade to $40 billion by 2015.
The annual two-way trade now stands at around $21 billion.
“Two-way trade has grown at 13 percent per annum in the past five years. Indian investment approvals in Australia grew last year alone to over $11 billion. This is a one hundred-fold increase from ten years ago,” she said.
The bilateral trade is highly skewed towards Australia. Australia mainly exports coal, non-monetary gold and copper ore and agricultural goods to India. India’s chief exports are pearls, precious and semi-precious stones, textiles and clothing.
Gillard said both countries are “regional partners” and have “common security interests” in what is increasingly described as the “Indo-Pacific region”.
“We both want security of maritime routes. And we both seek to build habits of co-operation and trust across our region, in particular through the East Asia Summit.”
Strategic analysts see the move as part of a deeper strategic engagement, counter-balancing the growing military influence of China in the region.
Speaking at the same event, Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma invited Australian investments in infrastructure, particularly in the proposed national investment and manufacturing zones (NMIZs).
“This process (of setting up NMIZS) is on. Come and join us at least in setting up of these zones,” he said.