New Delhi [India], June 1 (ANI): At the second round of the Defence Minister's dialogue here in the national capital, India and Australia expressed satisfaction on the expansion of military cooperation into new areas. The Joint Statement mentioned that the leaders looked forward to inaugurating the Joint Staff talks later this year.

'Ministers welcomed increased information sharing between operational headquarters. They looked forward to the inaugural Joint Staff Talks later this year. Ministers acknowledged the importance of secure bilateral communications at the strategic, operational, and tactical levels and welcomed progressing these efforts through subject matter exchanges', the statement said.

The statement noted how the Ministers welcomed the growing strategic convergence between Australia, India, Japan and the United States in the Indo-Pacific as they reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing collaboration on maritime domain awareness to increase interoperability among the partners. Ministers expressed strong support for the Quad Indo-Pacific Maritime Surveillance Collaboration (IPMSC) initiative, to be implemented initially in the Indian Ocean Region as well as through subject matter expert exchanges and tabletop exercises.

'Ministers welcomed India's operationalisation of the Indian Ocean Region program of the Quad Indo-Pacific Partnership for Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA) through the Information Fusion Centre - Indian Ocean Region in Gurugram. Ministers agreed to work to develop a Common Operational Picture (COP) across the Indo-Pacific by drawing upon the existing IPMDA efforts', the statement said.

It highlighted how the leaders welcomed the evolution of army Exercise Austrahind this year to focus on amphibious combat and littoral manoeuvre. Australia welcomed India's inaugural participation in Operation Render Safe 2026. India welcomed Australia's invitation for participation in submarine rescue exercise Black Carillon.

The joint statement noted that the ministers appreciated the growing engagement between their armies, navies and air forces and looked forward to India's enhanced participation in Exercise Talisman Sabre 2027. They welcomed Australia's participation in India's Exercise Milan in February 2026, and India's participation in Australia's Exercise Kakadu in March 2026.

'Ministers looked forward to their countries' participation in each other's multinational air exercises in 2026, including operationalising the bilateral Implementing Arrangement on Air-to-Air Refuelling at Exercise Pitch Black', the statement added.

In the context of cooperation on training, Ministers encouraged their officials to finalise arrangements for deployment of an Indian visiting instructor at the Australian Defence College in 2028-2029, to strengthen professional military engagement, knowledge exchange, and strategic alignment.

The Australian Defence Minister was also accorded the Guard of Honour during his visit to India.

He also paid homage to India's fallen heroes at the National War Memorial and laid a wreath and honouring the supreme sacrifice of the brave men and women of the Defence Forces.

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In a post on X, Rajnath Singh highlighted how the India-Australia Defence Partnership is poised to make steady progress in the years to come.

https://x.com/rajnathsingh/status/2061352975185101069?s=20

In a post on X, Marles highlighted that he spoke about turning the deep strategic trust into practical defence cooperation.

https://x.com/RichardMarlesMP/status/2061356514825441571?s=20

'Peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific rely on us working closely with our partners', he said. (ANI)