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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the launch of a New Roadmap for Australia’s Economic Engagement with India
| Photo Credit: SEPCIAL ARRANGEMENT/Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Australia believes in India. We believe that India has a bright future economically. We believe that it will be the third biggest economy in the world by 2030. And we believe that India warrants greater political influence as its economy grows — that is why we back India’s claim for a seat on the United Nations Security Council.
We also believe that Australia is a natural partner for India’s growth because our economies are complementary (we produce the things India needs, and vice versa); because we are strategically aligned; and because we are neighbours just across the Indian Ocean.
The new Roadmap, the next phase of ties
For these reasons, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last week personally launched the New Roadmap for Australia’s Economic Engagement with India. The Roadmap sets out how Australia can contribute to, and benefit from, India’s phenomenal growth. Put simply, the Roadmap says that Australia believes in the Indian growth narrative, and the Roadmap then goes on to articulate how Australia has the skills, the resources and the commitment to support that narrative.
The Roadmap builds on the successful effort from our last economic strategy in 2018. But a lot has changed since then.
Fuelled by our free trade agreement, the Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), the India-Australia relationship has grown at the high end of our expectations. Take this one telling statistic. India’s exports to the world have grown by 35% in the last five years. Not bad, right? But India’s exports to Australia have grown by 66% — nearly twice as fast as India’s exports to the rest of the world.
That is because India is growing in ways that are complementary to Australia’s own economy.
Australia produces the things that India will need for the next chapter of its growth — the energy to power the Indian economy; the resources (including the critical minerals) to power India’s manufacturing drive; and the training capabilities that India needs to skill up the next generation of Indian professionals and workers.
The Roadmap charts the next phase of our partnership, and showcases how Australia can be part of India’s economic story. It identifies four sectors — the “Superhighways of growth” — where the Australia-India partnership is most prospective. Those superhighways of growth are: clean energy; education and skills; agribusiness and tourism.
The Roadmap also describes another seven ‘major economic roads’ to mutual prosperity: investment; tech; sports; culture and the arts; resources; defence; space and health. These are the fields in which our complementary capabilities can be most naturally leveraged.
In framing our partnership, we are listening closely to India’s ambitions.
A great example is India’s ambition for manufacturing electric vehicles. When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi talks about the number of electric vehicles growing eight-fold in India by 2030, Australia responds that we have the critical minerals and raw earth metals to realise that goal. Australia is the largest lithium producer in the world, and has the world’s second largest reserves of nickel and cobalt.
Support for India’s skill needs
We are also listening carefully to Indian voices about skills needs. And we hear that India needs to equip two crore Indians every year with the right skills and qualifications to maximise its growth. Australian universities are listening, and are gearing up to provide the high-quality training needed to support Indian ambitions. Australian universities have been the first foreign universities to open campuses here in India — in Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) city, and shortly in Noida (Uttar Pradesh), and more will follow in the coming years.
Australia also boasts a ‘super power’ when it comes to economic engagement with India. That super power is the Indian diaspora, already 10 lakh strong and the fastest growing population group in our country. Many of these Indian-Australians are prominent leaders in business, government and the community. And our new Centre for Australia India Relations, with ₹132 crore worth of support from our government, is, appropriately, headed by two eminent Australians of Indian origin. Our Prime Minister stood beside one of them as he launched the Roadmap.
The Indian diaspora is a bridge
The Indian diaspora in Australia is an invaluable asset. Indian-Australians deepen our understanding of each other and spark business opportunities. Because our government understands the value of this ‘human bridge’ (as Mr. Modi calls it), we are investing another ₹22 crore into our hugely successful Maitri grants program. This programme works to maximise the potential of our diaspora links.
The Roadmap signals to Australian business that they should look for further opportunities to partner with Indian counterparts, for mutual benefit.
And as they do that, it becomes even more important that we progress our Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA), building a higher platform for the next stage of our economic partnership.
As the Australian Prime Minister says “Australia’s relationship with India is stronger, deeper and more consequential than it has ever been — but there is much more to come. What is truly exciting is the sheer scale of the opportunities in the near future if we get things right in the present… With this Roadmap, the way ahead looks a lot clearer.”
Philip Green is Australia’s High Commissioner to India
Published – March 03, 2025 12:22 pm IST
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