Growing India-Australia Ties: Army Chief’s New Delhi Visit On Aug 10-14; Ahead of AustraHind in Nov 2025
Chief of the Australian Army will visit India from August 10 to 14 (Image courtesy: RNA)
In an apparent boost to India-Australia ties, Chief of the Australian Army Lieutenant General Simon Stuart is set for an India visit next week. Scheduled from August 10 to 14, General Stuart will engage in high-level discussions with General Upendra Dwivedi, Chief of the Army Staff, Indian Army and other senior defence ministry officials.
Australian army chief’s visit to India asserts in bold letters that the depth in India–Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership is growing and how. Both the QUAD countries are expanding their relations in the military domain, as they work to uphold a stable and rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific.
Worth mentioning here is that Lieutenant General Stuart’s upcoming trip to India is a reflection of our Army’s growing mantle and profile as a credible partner in the Indo-Pacific. Defence partnership between the countries encompasses almost every major area of military partnership.
India-Australia defence ties: How important is the partnership?
In a show of their growing defence ties, New Delhi last month made its debut in Australia’s largest bilateral military exercise – Exercise Talisman Sabre. The move marked a significant milestone in the deepening defence and security cooperation between the two nations in the Indo-Pacific region.
Exercise Talisman Sabre is the country’s largest bilateral military exercise. Concluded recently, the 11th and largest iteration of the defence drill, consisted of a live fire exercise, and field training exercises incorporating force preparation activities, amphibious landings, ground force manoeuvres, and air combat and maritime operations.
Later this year, both Indian and Australian armies are set to partake in AustraHind, their joint military exercise. Ahead of this, Stuart’s India visit could lay the groundwork for operational synergy and strategic trust and the next phase of Army-to-Army collaboration in the region.
Australia-India Defence Policy Talks: What were the recent discussions about?
Held in March this year, the 9th Australia-India Defence Policy Talks reviewed defence outcomes of second Ministerial Foreign and Defence Ministers’ 2+2 in November 2023, intersessional 2+2 consultations at secretary level in October 2024, the second Annual Leaders’ Summit in November 2024.
Discussions between the two QUAD members also focused on cooperation priorities including maritime domain awareness, reciprocal information sharing, industry and science and technology collaboration, and exercises and exchanges including deployments from each other’s territories.
India and Australia also exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest.
How has India-Australian army cooperation progressed?
Over the past few years, the operational cooperation between the Indian Army and the Australian Army has shown a remarkable growth. They are marked by increasing complexity, scale, and strategic relevance of joint exercises and deployments, including Exercise AustraHind, launched in 2016.
This annual exercise is aimed at promoting military cooperation between India and Australia through enhancement of interoperability in conduct of joint sub conventional operations in semi-urban environment in semi-desert terrain under Chapter VII of the UN mandate.
Meanwhile, the 4th iteration of AustraHind is expected to be held in November this year
