In her 2020 article, “Australia-India Naval Cooperation and the Islands of the Indo-Pacific,” Darshana Baruah argued that a maritime partnership between Australia and India centered around the remote island territories of both countries would yield strategic benefits. Five years on, we asked her to reassess her argument.Image: Paullymac via Flickr.In 2020, you wrote “Australia-India Naval Cooperation and the Islands of the Indo-Pacific,” arguing that a strategic partnership between Australia and India grounded in naval cooperation would yield key advantages for both countries. How has the strategic partnership between India and Australia evolved, particularly regarding the use of their respective island territories? Have we seen concrete progress on the mutual access agreements and coordinated surveillance missions you proposed?The maritime partnership is one of the strongest pillars of the Indian-Australian bilateral relationship. When I wrote the piece in 2020 suggesting collaborations using each other’s strategic islands, it appeared significantly ambitious, which would require strong political will. Today, Australian P-8s have landed in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Indian P-8s have deployed from the Cocos Keeling Islands and Darwin. These deployments and coordinated exercises have been made possible through the Mutual Logistics Support Agreement and a closer understanding of threats and shared security environment for India and Australia. We have seen concrete and progressive developments around the central proposals from the article. These shifts and developments in the Indian-Australia relationship would have been quite difficult five years ago. However, the state of the relationship today underpins the strategic importance of the Indo-Pacific and the Indian Ocean in the Indian-Australian partnership.You highlighted the challenge of differing priority theaters — India focusing on the Indian Ocean and Australia on the Pacific. With the rise of the Quad and AUKUS partnerships since 2020, has this geographic division of focus been bridged, or remains a constraint
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In her 2020 article, “Australia-India Naval Cooperation and the Islands of the Indo-Pacific,” Darshana Baruah argued that a maritime partnership between Australia and India centered around the remote island territories of both countries would yield strategic benefits. Five years on, we asked her to reassess her argument.Image: Paullymac via Flickr.In 2020, you wrote “Australia-India Naval Cooperation and the Islands of the Indo-Pacific,” arguing that a strategic partnership between Australia and India grounded in naval cooperation would yield key advantages for both countries. How has the strategic partnership between India and Australia evolved, particularly regarding the use of their respective island
