India 'indispensable part of balancing equation' for Australia

Labelling India as an "indispensable part of the balancing equation for Australia", Australia's High Commissioner to India, Philip Green OAM, on Monday, said that the trajectory of India's economy is something that many of Canberra's firms and government want to be closely involved in.

Speaking at an event "Diplomat Diaries", hosted by the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, Green further commended India's economy.

Emphasising that Australia has a very prospective bilateral relationship with India, Green said, " I've said that India is an indispensable part of the balancing equation for Australia. I've said that the trajectory of your economy is something that many of our firms and our governments want to be closely involved in."

He further said that almost a million Indian people live in Australia.

"I haven't said it harsh, but there's a third driver here, and that's the now nearly a million people of Indian origin who live in Australia, nearly 4 per cent of our population...." he said.

On allegations made by the US and Canada, Green reiterated the statement by the Australian foreign ministry.

"The first thing to say is that at the time that these allegations first came out, my foreign minister and my department made some statements about our approach to that," he said.

Green stressed, "We haven't changed our view about the rule of law and sovereignty for a country like Australia."

Highlighting the Indo-Pacific, he said, "Although the world is currently awash with security challenges, be that total scale land war in Europe or devastating conflict and terrorism in the Middle East, and although Australia has a level of focus on those things...The key point I want to underline to you is that Australia's focus on the Indo-Pacific has never been so complete. And so I think this is a group of talks called "diplomat diaries."

He added that Australia's diary is full of the Indo-Pacific and although "you could chart on a graph the level of Australian engagement in its region as opposed to the world's over the past 30 years period...."

"Even though there has been a steady increase in our foreign security policies focus on the Indo-Pacific, or as we used to call it, the Asia Pacific, we are now definitely at a new high," Green added.

Australian envoy said that they are enormously optimistic about the economic future of their region and "what that can mean for our businesses, for Australians who want to travel, for human experience with other people in our region."

(ANI)