Prime Minister Narendra Modi had addressed the Australian Parliament and become the first Prime Minister to do so. PM Modi, in his addressing, said, “It has taken a Prime Minister of India 28 years to come to Australia. It should never have been so. And, this will change. Australia will not be at the periphery of our vision, but at the centre of our thought.”
After holding bilateral talks with Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Modi addressed the Parliament following which the two countries signed five pacts on social security, transfer of sentenced prisoners, combating narcotics trade, tourism, and Arts and Culture.
PM Modi said, “In India, we have seen its face closely for three decades. And, we see it with the clarity that comes with it. Terrorism is changing in character and expanding in its reach.”
He said, “Internet has made recruitment and call to violence self-generated. It also feeds off money laundering, drug trafficking and arms smuggling. We have to deepen our bilateral security cooperation. But, we need a comprehensive global strategy for a global problem.”
Modi sought closer security cooperation, a policy of no distinction between terrorist groups or discrimination between nations, a resolve to isolate those who harbor terrorists, willingness to empower states that will fight them, a social movement against extremism in countries in order to tackle the new security challenges where it is most prevalent and every effort to delink religion and terrorism.
Modi said, “India sees Australia as one of our foremost partners in the region. There are few countries in the world where we see so much synergy as we do in Australia.”
He said, “We must guard against regional trade initiatives becoming instruments of political competition. However, economic integration by itself won’t be a strong basis for peace and stability, without strong regional institutions.”
He also called for collaboration in the field of maritime security.
He said, “We should collaborate more on maintaining maritime security. We should work together on the seas and collaborate in international forums. And, we should work for a universal respect for international law and global norms.”
PM said, “Responding to the region’s disasters, combating proliferation, acting against piracy, we can work together on a full range of security challenges.”
He said the two countries need not have to rely on borrowed architecture of the past nor did the two have the luxury to “choose who we work with and who we don’t.”
“But, what we do need is to work together and with others to create environment and culture that promotes the currency of co-existence and cooperation; in which all nations, small and big, abide by international law and norms, even when they have bitter disputes.”
Modi state, “India and Australia are members of several institutions that are critical for this region and the world. We should coordinate more closely in East Asia Summit, G20 and the Indian Ocean Region Association.”
PM Modi woos ‘Make in India’ in Australian Parliament and said, “We have a new Mission for turning ‘Make in India’ into a global name just as Computer in India is. But, we want to find new pathways to prosperity, not simply travel down the roads of the previous century. Much of India’s future cities and infrastructure is yet to be built and so we have a unique opportunity to make our choices now.”
“India’s development, demography and demand provide a unique long term opportunity for Australia — and all in the familiar framework of democracy. There is no other example of this nature in the world. Indian investors, too, are coming here in growing numbers and commitments.”
Modi highlighted the example of Walter Griffin, who designed Canberra and was buried in Lucknow, after narrating his story to Abbott and Obama during the G20.
During its address, Modi also talked about Australian novelist and lawyer Jang Lang, who helped Rani Laxmibai against the British East India Company.
“This morning, Prime Minister and I honoured our soldiers, who 100 years ago made the supreme sacrifice together in the battle of Gallipoli. The man who designed this beautiful capital of Canberra, Walter Burley Griffin, lies buried in the old city of Lucknow in India.”
He said, “More than 150 years ago, an Australian novelist and lawyer John Lang fought the legal battle for a brave Indian freedom fighter, the Queen of Jhansi, Rani Laxmibai against the British East India Company in India’s first War of Independence. He also lies buried in the Indian hill town of Mussoorie.”
He also praises the cricket spirit and legendry cricketer Bradman and said, “We celebrate the legend of Bradman and the class of Sachin Tendulkar together. We are impressed by Australian speed as you are charmed by the Indian spin, until of course Shane Warne came along!”
Modi lauds the people of Australia for making what the nation is today. Modi said generations of people’s representatives have made the country one of the greatest nations of the world.
Australian Prime Minister Abbott said, Australia will export uranium to India under suitable safeguards if all went well.
In his addressing, Abbott said, “I will make this declaration here in this parliament that there are two Prime Ministers in this chamber today and we will make it happen. If all goes well, Australia will export uranium to India under suitable safeguards because cleaner energy is one of the most important contributions that Australia can make to wider world. We want to be dependable source of energy, security of food and of security of India.”
Abbott said, “If all goes to plan, and no one, if I may say so, has made the Indian bureaucracy perform as Prime Minister Modi did it in Gujarat, by the end of next year, we will have a free trade deal with what is potentially the world’s largest market.”
Australian PM said, “Australia welcomes India’s strength in the Indian Ocean. Australia admires Prime Minister Modi’s invitation to come Make in India which echoes our own determination that Australia will be open for business but despite that regrettably Australia only did $15 billion business with India last year and that hardly does justice to our two countries’ potential.”
He said, “Although India’s GDP per person is still only about half of China, its growth is strong and economic prospects are broad and population is likely to overtake China’s in couple of decades. This is why people now speak of the Indo-Pacific. It is now the focus of the world economic dynamism. With China, India is the rising superpower of Asia — the emerging superpower that is already a democracy.”
Australian PM praised PM Modi for his electoral victory in May 2014 and said there was a lot to learn from Modi and his working style and how he got the bureaucracy got going.
Bureau Report
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