The India-Australia relationship has matured beyond diplomatic engagements or trade agreements. Over the past few years, it has expanded into a comprehensive strategic alliance encompassing defence, critical minerals, technology, education, research and people-to-people ties.
These developments formed the basis theme of an NDTV special broadcast featuring His Excellency Philip Green OAM, Australian High Commissioner to India; Ravneet Pawha, Vice President (Global Engagement) and CEO (South Asia), Deakin University, and Indrani Bagchi, foreign policy analyst and strategic affairs expert.
Together, they explored how both nations are building a future-focused and impactful partnership driven by shared interests and complementary strengths.
Reflecting on the significance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Australia, Philip Green said that the biggest shift in bilateral ties has been the emphasis on implementation rather than intent.
"The big shift was towards concrete, achievable and deliverable outcomes...This was months-long effort to find real new points of contact that would make a real difference to Australia and India going forward."
Green noted that the visit resulted in a new defence and security declaration, a Strategic Technology Partnership, maritime cooperation in the Indo-Pacific, fresh Australian investments in India and collaboration in sports, signalling that the relationship has entered a more action-oriented phase.
Education, however, emerged as one of the defining pillars of this growing partnership. As India works towards becoming a global knowledge economy with the National Education Policy (NEP) blueprint, Australian institutions are playing an important role in supporting the ambitious vision.
Ravneet Pawha highlighted why the collaboration between the two countries has grown so rapidly.
"Australia has a great system of high-quality institutions and India is in need of high-quality institutions," she said.
As per her, the partnership now extends far beyond student mobility, covering school collaborations, joint curriculum development, vocational skilling and research. Today, there are over 450 research partnerships between institutions in both countries, while around eight Australian universities have either established campuses in India or are about to.
Speaking about Deakin University's long-standing engagement with India, Pawha said, "The potential of the two countries to come together is solid. Deakin University has been here for 32 years and the reason for that has been our focus on 'In India, With India, For India' across skilling, education and research."
She added that initiatives such as Deakin's GIFT City campus demonstrate how global universities can help create industry-ready talent, strengthen research ecosystems and build future workforce pipelines within India rather than simply facilitating overseas education.
The conversation also highlighted the strategic convergence between the two countries. Indrani Bagchi argued that cooperation in the Indo-Pacific has become increasingly relevant amid global geopolitical uncertainty.
"We live in the Indo-Pacific. We are denizens of the Indo-Pacific... the logic of the Indo-Pacific and the Quad is just as relevant today."
She noted that collaboration in resilient supply chains, defence and critical minerals reflects a natural alignment of long-term strategic interests rather than a temporary geopolitical response.
Economic cooperation, too, has witnessed remarkable growth. Green pointed to the impact of the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, noting that bilateral trade has expanded at a significantly faster pace than India's overall exports.
"In the last five years, India's exports to the world have grown by 40%. But India's exports to Australia have grown by 200%."
Looking ahead, he highlighted education, tourism, green energy supply chains and agrifood as the "Superhighways of Growth" while adding that technology would become an equally important pillar of future collaboration.
Beyond economics and strategy, the speakers concurred that the relationship is ultimately anchored in its people. With a vibrant Indian diaspora contributing across Australian society, cultural exchanges, sports and education continue to deepen the connection between the two nations.
Summing up the future of bilateral ties, Green observed, "There are three underlying drivers of this relationship, strategic alignment, economic complementarity and the living bridge. Tech and AI are where the real uncharted future of this relationship lies."
As India and Australia chart the next phase of their partnership, the conversation made one point abundantly clear: the relationship has moved beyond diplomacy. It is now being shaped by shared investments in talent, innovation, education and technology marking a new chapter in a partnership that is designed not only to respond to today's challenges but also to create opportunities for the decades ahead.
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