India, Australia strike deal for access to military bases

PM Narendra Modi with Australian PM Scott Morrison during the India-Australia Leaders' Virtual Summit. Pic /PTI

India and Australia elevated their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and signed seven agreements including a landmark deal for reciprocal access to military bases for logistics support during an online summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison. The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) will allow militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation.

In sync with the comprehensive strategic partnership, the two sides also upgraded their two-plus-two dialogue featuring their foreign and defence secretaries to the ministerial level. Besides the MLSA, the other pacts signed will provide for bilateral cooperation in areas of cyber and cyber-enabled critical technology, mining and minerals, military technology, vocational education and water resources management.

In the talks, the two sides also deliberated on a host of key issues, including dealing with growing threat of terrorism, maritime security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, reform in the World Trade Organisation and ways to deal with the Coronavirus crisis. Agencies

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