India wants only bilateral defence ties with Australia

New Delhi, Dec 7 (IANS) Days after snubbing Australia over its proposal for a trilateral military pact with US, India Wednesday welcomed Australian Defence Minister Stephen Smith but strongly communicated to him that it is looking only at bilateral relations and engagement at multinational fora such as the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting Plus.

Smith, who arrived here during the day, in the evening met Indian Defence Minister A.K. Antony, who stressed on bilaterals with Australia rather than a multilateral construct involving other powers, according to a defence ministry release.

The discussion between the two ministers was described as 'fruitful'.

Describing Smith's visit as 'an important milestone' in the evolution of the Indo-Australia strategic partnership, Antony said the two countries are important members of the Commonwealth and the Asia-Pacific region.

India and Australia are currently chair and vice-chair of the Indian Ocean Region Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC).

Smith is on a three-day visit to India. On his arrival at the South Block lawns, he was warmly received by Antony, along with Defence Secretary Shashikant Sharma and other senior officials of the ministry.

He was also accorded a tri-services guard of honour.

During the bilateral talks, both sides noted that the defence cooperation activities are gradually strengthening.

They noted that the inaugural session of the defence policy talks in New Delhi last December and the ongoing service-to-service staff talks are important mechanisms for developing constructive and mutually beneficial interactions between the defence establishments of both the countries.

The two sides also noted that the practice of the respective navies of conducting passage exercises during naval ship visits to each other's ports have proved to be beneficial and that these should continue.

Both ministers also agreed to examine the possibility of undertaking a full-fledged bilateral naval exercise in the future.

The two defence ministers agreed to institute Track 1.5 Dialogues (semi-government level) on defence matters between suitable institutions of both sides.

Regional security issues also came up for discussion at the 40-minute meeting.

Both sides agreed that the challenges in the area of maritime security like piracy and freedom of navigation are important issues, which required concerted efforts of the global community.

Smith invited Antony to visit Australia next year, which has been accepted, the defence ministry release said.