Context:  

Recently, India-Australia held the second Annual Summit on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

2^nd India-Australia Annual Summit

• Both countries made significant progress in strengthening bilateral ties across various range of important sectors. 

• Cooperation in Economy, Trade and Investments

• India’s ‘Make in India’ and Australia’s ‘Future Made in Australia’ have complementarity and collaborative potential to unlock economic growth.
• Both Countries welcomed the extension of the Australia-India Business Exchange (AIBX) programme for another four years from July 2024.
• AIBX is a 4-year program launched in 2021 to boost trade and investment between India and Australia until 2023-24. 

Cooperation in Energy, Science and Technology, Space

• The Prime Ministers of both countries welcomed the India-Australia Renewable Energy Partnership (REP) which would provide cooperation in solar PV, green hydrogen, energy storage, and two-way investment in renewable energy projects.
• Memorandum of Understanding signed between India’s Khanij Bidesh Ltd. (KABIL) and Australia’s Critical Minerals Office made significant progress in the critical minerals sector.
• KABIL is a Joint Venture Company among the three Government Enterprises: National Aluminium Company Ltd. (NALCO), Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL) and Mineral Exploration & Consultancy Limited (MECL), in the ratio of 40:30:30, under the aegis of Ministry of Mines.

Cooperation in Defence and Security Cooperation

• Both countries expressed intent to renew and strengthen the Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation in 2025.
• The Prime Ministers of both countries highlighted the first-ever participation of Indian defence industries in the Indian Ocean Defence & Security 2024 Conference in Perth and the Land Forces Exposition in Melbourne.

Regional and Multilateral Cooperation

• The Prime Ministers reiterated their commitment to strengthening cooperation through the QUAD. India will host Australia at the Quad Leaders’ Summit in India in 2025.
• Quad is a diplomatic partnership between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States committed to supporting an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific that is inclusive and resilient.
• Both countries highlighted the success of the 2024 Indian Ocean Conference, co-hosted by Australia and India in Perth, and look forward to working closely together when India assumes the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Chair in 2025.
• IORA is an inter-governmental organisation established in 1997 to foster regional economic cooperation.

The 1st India-Australia Annual Summit

• India hosted the Prime Minister of Australia for the summit in 2023. 

• Both the countries signed following agreements/MOUs in the first summit:

• The Audio-visual Co-production Agreement; 
• Terms of Reference for India-Australia Solar Taskforce 
• Letter of Intent between Atal Innovation Mission and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) for furthering cooperation in Innovation.