Canberra, June 19: Australia is exploring areas and issues for closer defence cooperation with India which is likely to include maritime surveillance against terrorism and exchanges for military training of officers. "We are exploring various issues. I met Indian Defence Minister George Fernandes a couple of weeks ago in Singapore and I had also met him last year. We discussed how we can develop a closer defence relationship in areas that may be useful.”
"There are some exchanges in military training of officers and India has asked us to look at its defence industry in some specific areas," Australian Minister for Defence Robert Hill told.
"You will see more exchanges of officials and visits. In the future sometime maybe we find value in some joint exercises and one area is maritime defence. Terrorism is a good example because states are finding they have a mutual interest and no one has got enough ships for effective maritime surveillance against terrorism. If we can work together, we can achieve a goal," he said.
"Our relationship is relatively under developed at the moment, but I think it will progress slowly and steadily. I am keen to visit India later this year or early in 2004," the Minister added.
The defence ties between India and Australia have seen a steady progress since bilateral relations were renewed in 2001.
Bureau Report