The Hindu : National : 'India, Australia ties should move beyond declarations'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

National

National

'India, Australia ties should move beyond declarations'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, OCT. 13. Australia wants more "meat" and "muscle" in the counter terrorism cooperation treaty that it had signed with India.

"Let us come down from ministerial declarations to practical on-the-ground cooperation between our experts. Let us accelerate the process to our mutual benefit," said the Australian High Commissioner to India, Penelope Wensley, while answering questions at the Madras University Department of Defence and Strategic Studies after a lecture on `Australian perspectives on regional security issues.'

Defining the progress so far as "more than just on paper" after the treaty was signed last August, she underlined the need for more exchanges between experts of both countries at the working level. "We need to ensure those meetings take place regularly and that we are sharing good, useful, practical information. I would like to see more exchanges in the area of people smuggling and of illegal movements of people ... I would link it to my wish that we would work more closely on issues of police cooperation, border control, immigration issues."

Ms. Wensley said the tempo of defence cooperation had picked up with a series of exchanges and visits.

The naval cooperation should move beyond port calls of ships of both countries to "something more practical." But she was aware of the "practical constraints" to take the relationship "to the next step." This was because the two navies were involved in a lot of activities on their own now, she said.

Gaps in relations

Ms. Wensley said there were "gaps" in the relationship between the countries; not differences. This gap could be filled with the recognition that both nations could benefit from working more closely together — be it on bilateral, regional or multilateral fora.

Asked if Australia would support India's bid for a permanent place in United Nations Security Council, she said: "Australia recognises India's claims to permanent membership in the Security Council."

The head of the Defence Department of the university, Gopalji Malviya, said that in the early Nineties there were "some gaps" in the relationship between the two countries particularly since Australia was suspicious of the Indian Navy's designs.

But this perception had been corrected through a dialogue between experts of the two countries in New Delhi, he said.

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