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Indo-Australia discuss joint naval exercise
India Blooms News Service
New Delhi, Dec 8 (IBNS) India and Australia on Wednesday held a fruitful discussion on Defence Cooperation and among other issues agreed to explore the possibility of a joint naval exercise in future.
The defence ministers of the two countries- Australia's Stephen Smith and his Indian counterpart AK Antony- agreed to examine the possibility of undertaking a full-fledged bilateral Naval Exercise in the future and to institute Track 1.5 Dialogues (semi-government level) on Defence Matters between suitable institutions of both sides.
India and Australia noted that the practice of the respective Navies conducting Passage Exercises (PASSEX) during Naval Ship Visits to each other’s ports have proved to be beneficial and that these should continue.
These two countries are important members of the Commonwealth and the Asia-Pacific Region and are currently Chair and Vice-Chair of IOR-ARC (Indian Ocean Region Association for Regional Cooperation) respectively.
Issues such as regional security, maritime security, piracy and freedom of navigation were discussed between Smith and Antony.
Antony described the visit of the Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith as an important milestone in the evolution of the Indo-Australia Strategic Partnership.
Defence Minister AK Antony stressed that India should look forward to developing its exchanges with Australia both at the bilateral and multilateral fora such as the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM Plus) etc.
Both sides noted that the bilateral Defence Cooperation activities are gradually strengthening.
They noted that the inaugural session of the Defence Policy Talks held in New Delhi in Dec last year and the ongoing Service-to-Service Staff Talks are important mechanisms for developing constructive and mutually beneficial interactions between the Defence Establishments of both the countries.
Antony was invited to visit Australia in 2012, which he accepted.
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