Modi puts India at centre of democracy and freedom

The raucous display of “Modi mania” seen at Sydney’s Olympic Park on Tuesday night leaves no doubt about the enormous popularity of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi among the 700,000-plus people of Indian origin who call Australia home. But it also underlines Mr Modi’s crucial importance to the rapidly expanding bilateral relationship between Canberra and New Delhi, and the centrality of India’s role in the alliance of democratic nations confronting Chinese subversion in the Indo-Pacific, including the South Pacific.

In discussions with Anthony Albanese at Admiralty House in Sydney on Wednesday, agreement was reached on a range of significant initiatives that will further boost our bilateral ties. They include a new labour mobility and migration partnership that will encourage the movement of students, graduates and professionals between the two countries and offer greater recognition of qualifications obtained in each one.

The agreement, as Mr Modi said, should do much to “further strengthen our living bridge”, his description for the growing Indian diaspora living in Australia and Australians living in India. His country is, indeed, “the world’s youngest and largest talent factory”. There was agreement, too, to work together on green hydrogen, and an announcement that India was expanding its diplomatic footprint in Australia by establishing a new consulate in Brisbane, while Australia was establishing a consulate-general in Bangalore (Bengaluru), capital of Karnataka and India’s main IT hub – the country’s “Silicon Valley”.

It would be hard to exaggerate the importance of these moves when India is advancing rapidly towards becoming the world’s third-largest economy by 2027, as projected by Morgan Stanley. As Mr Modi said in noting that it was his sixth meeting with the Prime Minister in the 12 months since last May’s election: “This reflects a depth in our comprehensive relations, confidence in our views and the maturity of our ties. In the language of cricket, our ties have entered the T20 mode.” That analogy is appropriate not just for the blossoming bilateral relationship; it is no less apposite in relation to India’s steady advance, under Mr Modi’s leadership, towards becoming a crucial force in the defence of democracy and freedom in the face of Chinese communist aggression across the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

It says much about the strategic priorities of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party government he leads that when US President Joe Biden had to pull out of this week’s scheduled Quadrilateral Security Dialogue summit in Sydney, Mr Modi insisted on maintaining his Australian commitments. More than that, in a clear sign of Indian concern about Chinese subversion in the South Pacific, he insisted on maintaining his commitment to visit Papua New Guinea on his way from the G7 summit in Hiroshima to Sydney.

In Port Moresby, Mr Modi presided over the third Forum for India-Pacific Islands Co-operation summit, a gathering at which he held discussions with 14 leaders of Pacific Island states and pledged strong support for them at a time when they are under increasingly coercive pressure from Beijing. In both Port Moresby and Sydney, Mr Modi committed India, with one of the world’s biggest armies, to work with Australia and other countries to achieve an “open, rules-based and prosperous Indo-Pacific”. That is a pledge that should do much to further underwrite the potency of the Quad alliance (Australia, the US, Japan and India) as more than a match for whatever China’s nefarious strategic ambitions may be in the Asia-Pacific region and, more specifically, in the South Pacific, which includes Fiji, with its large Indian-origin population.

Coinciding with Mr Modi’s historic visit to PNG on Monday was a visit by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in place of Mr Biden. He signed a defence pact with PNG leaders that adds another major element to the alliance emerging as a solid bulwark against Chinese subversion.

Mr Modi’s Hindu nationalist government is not without its problems but he is widely expected to win next year’s general election despite a warning last week when his BJP was trounced by the opposition Congress Party in a vital election for control of the key southern state of Karnataka, centred on Bangalore, home to India’s biggest tech companies. Nothing, however, is likely to change the course Mr Modi has forcefully set India on as a major trade and security partner of democracies such as Australia and a crucial ally of nations large and small across the Indo-Pacific, including those in the South Pacific.

Mr Modi’s visit to Sydney, like his stopover in PNG, was a powerful tour de force that sent a message Beijing would be foolish to ignore. It has put the world’s most populous nation, with its huge army and vast potential, firmly where it belongs – at the heart of the defence of democracy and freedom in our region. The importance of that cannot be overstated. Mr Modi is showing himself to be one of the most consequential among current world leaders. He thoroughly deserved the “bigger than The Boss, Bruce Springsteen” reception in Sydney Mr Albanese spoke of.