New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has raised the issue of the recent spate of attacks on Hindu temples in Melbourne and Brisbane with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese, who is currently on a four-day visit to India.
“I have conveyed this to PM Albanese and he has assured me that the safety and well-being of the Indian community in Australia is a priority for them,” PM Modi said, according to Indian Express. “Matter of regret that reports have come regularly from Australia in the last few weeks about attacks on temples…it is natural that such news makes people in India worried.”
Two Hindu temples in Melbourne and one in Brisbane came under attacks allegedly from supporters of the secessionist Kalisthan movement in Australia. First, the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in the Melbourne suburb of Mill Park was defaced with graffiti in January. This was followed by vandalism at ISKCON Hare Krishna Temple in Albert Park, which serves as the hub for Melbourne’s Bhakti Yoga Movement. The attackers defaced the temple with anti-Hindu slogans in January. In the latest incident, the Shree Laxmi Narayan Temple in Brisbane was vandalised last week, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
During the bilateral talks on Friday, both leaders discussed a range of issues to strengthen the relations between India and Australia, by promising to increase cooperation in defence, clean energy, education and economic spheres. They inked pacts on cooperation in sports, audio-visual co-production, and solar task force. The agreement on audio-visual co-production is aimed at supporting skilled jobs, creative exchange, and the development of culturally significant screen projects in both countries.
More importantly, Albanese said he was confident that India and Australia would be able to conclude the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation (CECA) agreement by the end of this year. According to a press statement from the Australian Prime Minister’s office, “the CECA will be a transformational deal that will create new jobs and opportunities in both countries”.
On renewable energy, Modi stressed that clean hydrogen and solar energy will be the two main areas of cooperation with Australia. The leaders also took stock of talks with regard to migration and mobility agreement, which is expected to benefit students, professionals, workers, academics and researchers, Indian Express reported.
On defence and security partnerships, Albanese said, “I welcome significant and ambitious progress under the Defence and Security pillar of our relationship. Prime Minister Modi and I are discussing an increasingly uncertain global security environment and committed to strengthening the Australia-India defence and security partnership to address shared challenges and work towards an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.”
“The leaders agreed to strengthen the Australia-India defence and security partnership in support of both nations’ shared ambition for an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. They welcomed Australia’s hosting of Exercise Malabar this year for the first time,” the press statement from the Australian Prime Minister’s Office said.
Albanese said he was looking forward to hosting Modi in Australia for the Quad leaders’ summit in May this year. Modi, on the other hand, said he was looking forward to welcoming Albanese to Delhi once again in September for the G20 summit.
On the other hand, before the bilateral meeting with Modi, the visiting prime minister was also asked by the media about the recent income tax raids on BBC. “Australia stands up for press freedom. But India is a great democracy, and to dismiss that is, I think, wrong. … Where there are differences or issues to be raised, we raise them privately and appropriately,” Albanese said in response, according to abc news.
Earlier in the day, Albanese was accorded a ceremonial welcome at Rashtrapathi Bhavan by President Droupadi Murmu. “Australia and India are great friends. We are partners and we are building that partnership even stronger each and every day,” Albanese said at the Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
This is the first visit by an Australian prime minister to India since 2017. Albanese’s visit came after a series of high-level engagements between the two countries in 2022 and 2023 at the ministerial level.