Source: Prime Minister of Australia
hank you to the Centre for Australia-India Relations and Ryan for organising this reception.
I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land we’re meeting on and pay my respect to elders past, present and emerging.
Can I also acknowledge our guest of honour, my friend, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi.
Ms Swati Dave, Chair of the Centre for Australia-India Relations and distinguished guests, one and all, including all of my ministerial colleagues that I see here as well.
Towards the end of the 20th Century, both Australia and India underwent a period of profound change and reform.
From a narrow foreign policy, to creative multilateral diplomacy.
From inward-looking, high-tariff economies to a new prosperity powered by trade and growth and engagement in our region.
Yet while both Australia and India embarked on similar journeys, with shared objectives at the same time we were making these changes in parallel, not in partnership.
For all the natural affinity of our histories and cultures, for all broad affection between our peoples the relationship between our countries was underdone, under-explored and under-examined.
In the last decade or so, that has certainly changed for the better.
Prime Minister Modi, your leadership and your personal engagement with Australia has been absolutely central to this change.
And so has the drive and determination of the business leaders in this room.
You are the “living bridge” between our nations.
And your ambition and vision has helped to reshape the Roadmap for Australia’s Economic Engagement with India.
India is on track to be the world’s third largest economy by the end of the decade.
It is the world’s largest democracy.
We want Australian business, Australian ideas, Australian expertise to help build and power and shape that growth that is occurring faster than any nation on Earth.
Today I am pleased to announce that the Business Council of Australia will be leading a senior business delegation to India during Australia Week in December this year.
And Austrade and the Australian High Commission in New Delhi will bring together a new investment roundtable in Mumbai.
And investment is certainly growing. I welcome the announcement we have had this morning from Australian Super that they will invest an additional $500 million into India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund.
This is about building on and broadening out the four key priorities in our roadmap: clean energy, education and skills, agribusiness, and tourism.
In every one of those sectors, new work to deepen our engagement is already underway.
When I made my first trip to India as Prime Minister in 2023, Deakin University announced they would be building a campus in Gujarat.
The first foreign university to open a campus anywhere in India.
And as of today we now have approval for eight Australian branch campuses, with Flinders University being just the latest.
This morning, our Education Minister, Jason Clare hosted a roundtable with Australian universities who have invested significantly in cooperation with India, including through Indian branch campuses.
Opening new centres of learning and opening the doors of opportunity with higher education, one of Australia’s great exports.
In that regard, I certainly welcome Monash University’s announcement of its $75 million investment into expanding ties with India including to fund scholarships and study assistance for Indian students and exchange programs for Australian students to visit India.
In agribusiness, companies like Perdaman show how Australian-Indian businesses are adding value and building resilience in both our nations.
When it opens next year, Perdaman’s Project Ceres urea manufacturing facility in Karratha will be Australia’s largest, producing around 2.3 million tonnes of urea a year.
World-leading Indian technology and machinery, producing the fertiliser Australian farmers use to feed the world.
Already, Project Ceres has created 2,000 jobs in construction.
And it will strengthen Australia’s manufacturing capability and fertiliser supply chains.
I am pleased to announce that my government has awarded Project Ceres Major Project status, helping facilitate the development of the facility and building on almost $750 million in support provided through loans from Export Finance Australia and the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
This is one of countless examples, big and small, of Australian-Indian companies contributing to the growth and success of both our nations.
Central to every one of these success stories is the bond between our people.
Every time I have visited India, whether it be as a backpacker in 1981, or as Prime Minister, where I stayed in slightly better hotels, I have been welcomed with extraordinary warmth and generosity and engagement with people.
Those same bonds of friendship shine through in our Australian-Indian diaspora and the businesses here today.
More than a million Australians trace their heritage to India.
And, this great global city, Melbourne, has been enriched by the hard work and aspiration of our nation’s largest Indian diaspora.
People who have come to Australia seeking a better life for themselves and their families and have made this a better country for all of us.
But always hanging on to the heritage of your country of your birth and being proud of where you have come from, as well as being proud Australians.
That’s what Australian multiculturalism is – not a theory, not something up for debate, just something which is.
Your entrepreneurship and innovation makes our economy more productive and dynamic.
Your kindness, your community spirit and your love of this country, your home, lifts us all up.
As leaders, Prime Minister Modi and I are always looking to deepen and diversify the connections between our nations.
We negotiate and sign agreements, we design and update plans.
But in the end it is our people, the people of Australia and of India who make the words a bond.
You are the custodians of the India and Australia relationship.
And everything we see here today is proof that the future is indeed in very good hands. Welcome.