New Delhi: Australia and India have seen substantive enhancement of the strategic and defence ties over the past four years, says outgoing Australian High Commissioner Harinder Sidhu. The various defence activities including bilateral and multilateral exercises and dialogue mechanisms have gone up from 11 in 2014 to 39 in the past year, she underlined.
‘Australia Supports Pak Grey Listing At FATF’- Envoy
Sidhu who is heading back to the ministry headquarters in Canberra after a four-year term in New Delhi also expressed hope that the two countries would finalise a mutual logistics sharing agreement between their two armed forces in the next few months.
“There is no reason why Australia and India cannot be among the two closest partners in Asia. There are really no obstacles. Where we do have issues or challenges they are not insurmountable. We have very common outlooks. As we are building a partnership in the Indo-Pacific, India should hope for no better friend than Australia and we also see India as a very close friend,” said Sidhu interacting with some select women foreign policy editors. “We have been making progress on those negotiations and I am very optimistic that we will see that come to fruition this
year,” said Sidhu when asked about the logistics agreement discussions. India has similar pacts with the United States, France and Singapore. Progress was made towards concluding the
Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA) with Japan during the inaugural 2+2 dialogue at the level of Foreign and Defence Ministers last November. The pacts once concluded with Japan, Australia will strengthen the eastward operations of the Indian navy while improving the interoperability of the maritime forces in the Indo-Pacific region, especially for HA/DR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief ) Ops.
The formal announcement could also happen when Australian Prime Minister Scott Morison, who had to cancel his scheduled visit to Delhi during the Raisina Dialogue this month because of the wildfires, reschedules his India trip likely before July.
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‘Indo-Pacific Not Aimed At Containing China’
The envoy stressed Australia’s Indo-Pacific strategy focusing on ASEAN centrality, working with strong democracies in the region, boosting trade ties and giving preference to the alliance with the US, is aimed at building a constructive relationship with China and not containing it. “We want an Indo-Pacific which is free, where countries are sovereign and independent and able to exercise freedom in their choice and is stable and prosperous. On all of those things I do not think India has any dispute,” said Sidhu describing the Indo- Pacific as a common vision. Asked about comments by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov during the Raisina
Dialogue that Indo-Pacific is US-driven concept to contain China, she replied, “It is not necessarily a concept that is dominated by one country, Nor is it a concept that is aimed at excluding or including anyone. It genuinely is an attempt to conceptualise the kind of strategic environment in which we live and what we would like to get. In any geographic concept, China is a part of the Indo-Pacific.”
Responding to reports that India may finally give the green signal to Canberra join the naval exercise it conducts with the United States and Japan, Sidhu said, “If India were to invite for Malabar exercises, it would be very likely that Australia would agree and accept.”
‘Pakistan Yet To Comply With FATF Requirements’
On the issue of Pakistan possibly getting off the current grey list (Watch List) instead of being blacklisted by the UN watchdog on international money laundering and terror financing FATF (Financial Action Task Force), the High Commissioner said that it would have to be a technical assessment.
However, she added that at the moment Australia favours Pakistan to remain on the grey list as it does not seem to have met the compliance requirements with the parameters set in earlier meetings.“At every FATF meeting, Australia has taken a very technical approach. That is the most objective way to assess what we are trying to get to.
We really want to have a good outcome. Which means Pakistan complying with the requirements imposed on it.
So we take a technical approach to the issue, assess Pakistan’s progress in objective terms as to where it has gotten to thus far,” she said.
The crucial FATF Plenary and Joint Working Groups meeting in Paris from 16th to 21st February will take a decision if Pakistan should be removed or retained on the grey list. The Asia Pacific Group (APG) or the Australia chapter among the nine affiliates of of FATF put Pakistan in an ‘enhanced black list’ in its Canberra meeting earlier last year.“We have continued to support the grey listing because our assessment on a technical basis has been that it has not met those requirements. That is not to say that if Pakistan were to actually improve its performance, that we may not consider differently. But at this stage that is where we have landed on grey listing,” Sidhu added further.
'India Must Consider Rejoining RCEP'
Batting for India’s return to the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) room, the envoy underlined it would be in the interest of New Delhi as well as the region. "It remains our hope that India will seriously consider returning to the RCEP table. We believe that there is scope for India to negotiate those issues that it continues to have concerns about. We also believe that it will be good for India and the region if India were to rejoin RCEP. It would deepen the economic integration and the political relations between India and ASEAN and other countries," she said.
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"If India were to be in RCEP it would reduce the risk that India would be excluded from RCEP or any other further economic cooperation down the track. We think India would be a very good and constructive partner in the RCEP group. So we are very keen to welcome India back into RCEP whenever India feels it is ready to do so," she further added arguing that open liberal trade policy would also enhance Indian economy and its economic growth.
"India’s openness to trade and the quality, extent and depth of trade it does will actually impact India’s growth. There are limits to what you can do inside your own country. Take for example if India wants to build a strong manufacturing sector it will need inputs into those. Those inputs need to be good quality, reliable and cheap. You can’t always get the inputs you need inside your own country. You will actually need to import them. You cannot rely on your own population, however large it maybe, to be your own market. You need to export your product, to compete in an environment so your product has to be high quality and cost-effective," said the High Commissioner whose parents migrated from India to Australia post partition.
'India's Strength Lies In Its Democracy'
While the envoy refused to comment on the situation in Kashmir or the protests surrounding the Citizenship Amendment Act, she emphasised that India’s democracy is of great essence. “When we say as part of the Indo-Pacific strategy we want to work with strong democracies in the region, one of India’s great strength is its pluralist democratic traditions. We welcome that in India, we look to work with India as a partner in the region building on those traditions,” said Sidhu.
Defends Decision To Ban Huawei in Australia
On the question of Chinese telecom giant Huawei being denied permission to supply equipments for the 5G networks Down Under, Sidhu defended Australia’s objection as being based on its national interest. “In making the technical decision on 5G, our overriding criterion was to protect our sovereignty. In that judgement we cannot accommodate vendors that maybe beholden to another country or a foreign power. We respect India’s right do what it finds fit in its own interest,” she said.
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