Posted on 09/08/2001 2:35:32 PM PDT by AM2000
India and Australia will conduct joint military exercises as part of an "intense defence cooperation plan" between the two countries.
"An intense defence cooperation programme between the two countries started off after Australia brought out a defence white paper last December in which it recognised India as one of the important powers of the Asia Pacific region, along with Japan and China," visiting Indian Defence Secretary Yogendra Narain told Indo-Asian News Service on Friday, the concluding day of his trip to Australia.
"We've decided to intensify our military-to-military and defence cooperation. This would include training programmes and hydrographic surveys as well," he said.
Top Indian and Australian bureaucrats also decided to exchange defence college instructors to impart better training to the armed forces of two countries that border the Indian Ocean.
In addition to meeting his Australian counterpart, Allen Hawkes, chief of the Defence Force, Narain also held talks with the chiefs and deputy chiefs of the three services and the chief of the Australian Defence Procurement Board.
In the inaugural foreign ministers' framework dialogue, framed during Indian Defence and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh's visit, the two countries decided to launch a new security dialogue.
The other purpose of Narain's visit to Australia, a follow up to Singh's trip in June, was to learn more about the working of the defence department.
"I have also come on a fact-finding mission to know more about reforms, which the Australians have carried out in the defence sector. We are reforming our defence management structure and making it highly integrated," Narain said.
"We're adopting the doctrine of joint operations between the army, air force and navy. Australia had done it in the 1980s. We've come to study this model and see how we can improve our procurement procedure like Australia," he said.
As the next step in increased defence cooperation, two Indian warships will participate in the Royal Australian Navy's International Fleet Review to celebrate Australia's Centenary of Federation on October 6 at Sydney.
Defence Secretary Hawkes has accepted Narain's invitation to visit India, and is expected to be in New Delhi next January.
India and Australia concluded their inaugural strategic dialogue at New Delhi in the last week of August and decided to continue the dialogue at regular intervals. The next round will be held in Canberra in 2002.
Indo-Asian News Service
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/islands_oceans_poles/indianoceanarea.jpg
Britain, US, Australia and India are the major powers with territories in this area. Apart from the Indian and Australian mainlands, you have a vast number of distributed islands that can be very usefull in a strategic sense. Diego Garcia (US/UK), Christmans and Coco Islands (Aus), Andaman, Nicobar, and Lakshadweep (India). (Not to mention if you believe some of the stuff about US presence in Socotra (Yemen)?) All in all, it makes sense for these different countries to turn a new page, start building a closer relationship and be more co-ordinated.
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