Australian PM to arrive today,joint security on agenda

As Kevin Rudd arrives in the Capital for a two-day visit,final touches are being given to a joint declaration on security cooperation between the countries.

As Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd arrives in the Capital on Wednesday for a two-day visit,final touches are being given to a joint declaration on security cooperation between the countries that would encompass maritime security and intelligence sharing.

The declaration,which has been in the works for several months,is being modelled around the cooperation agreement that India has with Japan and a similar agreement between Australia and Japan.

While an earlier quadrilateral security initiative including India,the US,Australia and Japan fizzed out after the landmark Malabar naval exercise in 2007,the upcoming declaration is being seen as a way of working together to maintain security in the region.

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It may be noted that Defence Minister A K Antony returned on Tuesday after attending the first Defence Policy Dialogue with Japan where the two countries decided to take forward defence exchanges and reiterated their commitment to bilateral and regional security cooperation. The security cooperation agreement that was signed between the countries in 2008 was also reviewed during the visit.

India and Australia are looking forward to cooperation in regional security especially in the Indian Ocean Region where both countries have high stakes considering that a bulk of their trade passes through the waters.

The two countries are also likely to declare a closer cooperation between the navies,including joint training exercises and exchanges of personnel to participation in multi-national war games.

While the 2007 Malabar exercise which included Japan,Singapore and the US besides India and Australia was a major landmark in security cooperation between the countries,the quadrilateral fizzed out after reluctance from many quarters as it was being perceived as anti- China.