Published: 11:22 PM, 22 August 2026
Deals on Modi’s Australia Visit
Dr. Shantanu Mukharji
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Australia visit (July 8-10, 2026), soon after a visit to Indonesia proved an all-round success in terms of several deals in different areas bringing both the countries further strategically more closer.
Here, it may be recalled that India is Australia’s fifth largest trading partner after China, Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, while around 1 million people in Australia claim Indian ancestry, out of a population of 28 million as evident in the available figures furnished by the Australian government. Two-way trade in goods and services was valued at 54.4 billion Australian dollars (US$37.7bn) during the 2024-2025 financial year, according to Australian government figures. Amongst the multiple deals India and Australia signed during Prime Minister Modi’s recent visit, most important perhaps is Australia and India having signed an agreement to export Australian uranium to India for use in nuclear energy.
According to news portal Al Jazeera, Prime Minister Modi signed (July 9) an important agreement on nuclear energy, he and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Melbourne (July 9). This as per Al Jazeera, will pave the way for uranium supplies from Australia to India and give clean energy objectives a fresh momentum. It is believed in knowledgeable quarters that India has long eyed Australia’s uranium reserves, which make up around 28 percent of the world’s supply, to help meet a target of 100 gigawatts of nuclear energy capacity by 2047 while Australia is looking to diversify trade beyond its reliance on China, its top affiliate. The exports would fall under safeguards established by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help increase the share of non-fossil-fuel power capacity. It is also relevant to mention that India and Australia had entered a nuclear cooperation agreement in 2014. However, Australia exported only limited supplies of uranium to India apprehending that the material could be used for making weapons.
Meanwhile, according to Jacob Shteyman of the Canberra Times, the agreement signed will allow Australian companies to sell uranium ore to the rapidly expanding Indian market. As India tries to decarbonize and massively increase power supply to fuel its bid to become an artificial intelligence powerhouse, Australians miners are anticipating to meet soaring uranium demand and prices. But notwithstanding the world's largest uranium reserves, Australia is only the fourth-largest producer of the radioactive ore. That's because uranium mines currently only operate in South Australia and the Northern Territory. In every other state, new uranium mines are banned.
Interestingly, Australian Minerals Council Chief Executive, Tania Constable says the opportunity to supply a potentially immense Indian nuclear generation program adds further impetus to overturn outdated and ideologically driven bans on uranium mining. This includes state mining bans in New South Wales (NSW), Queensland and Western Australia (WA) and archaic federal laws.
Both the Prime Ministers also agreed to strengthen defence cooperation and bolster supply chains for critical minerals. The two nations also plan to build a “temporary space tracking terminal” on Australia’s Cocos Keeling Islands in the Indian Ocean, which will support Indian space flight projects. After meeting Modi at the business event, Albanese called the Indian leader a "living bridge" between Australia and India, ?saying Modi's ?vision had helped reshape the roadmap for Australia's economic engagement with India.
In the meantime, reacting to the agreements and developing strategic cooperation in the aftermath of Prime Minister Modi’s visit and different pacts signed, Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) opines that Australia has emerged as one of India’s most consequential strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific. As a Quad member, a trusted supplier of critical minerals, reliable energy partner and champion of a rules-based maritime order, Australia has a crucial place in India’s regional structure. Similarly, India has also become central to Australia’s vision of diversifying economic partnerships, strengthening regional resilience and balancing strategic risks in the Indo-Pacific. The most significant outcome was the Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation, replacing the 2009 security declaration with a far more ambitious framework. Together with the new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the Indian Coast Guard and Australia’s Maritime Border Command, these initiatives strengthened the architecture for maritime domain awareness, humanitarian assistance, disaster relief and coordinated responses across the Indian Ocean. Further, the agreement, according to CII, significantly broadens defence collaboration by focusing on military interoperability, maritime security, defence industrial cooperation, cybersecurity, counter-terrorism, humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and cooperation through regional groupings including Quad, ASEAN, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). Equally significant was the launch of the Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains. It takes cooperation beyond research collaboration to include resilient semiconductor supply chains, trusted digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, biotechnology and defence innovation. The framework also positions India and Australia as partners in shaping technology governance.
Economic security emerged as another pillar. India is already Australia’s fifth largest trading partner with two-way trade in goods valued at over $24 billion in 2025-26. At the summit, both leaders reaffirmed their commitment to concluding a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement, building upon the gains of the economic cooperation and trade agreement. Greater emphasis was placed on reducing non-tariff barriers, encouraging greater investment flows and strengthening business-to-business engagement. Critical minerals cooperation deserves particular attention. Secure access to lithium, cobalt, nickel and rare earth elements has become a strategic necessity today. Australia’s resource base complements India’s expanding manufacturing ambitions. The summit’s focus on long-term offtake arrangements, joint processing capabilities, geological collaboration and supply chain resilience lays the foundation for a partnership that extends well beyond commodity trade into value addition and advanced manufacturing. Energy cooperation has similarly secured strategic importance. Against the backdrop of continuing geopolitical instability and disruptions in global energy markets, the Joint Statement on Energy Security echoed a pragmatic approach that balances energy transition with energy security.
Finally, education, skills and innovation continue to support the social dimension of the bilateral relationship. The approval of Australian university campuses in India, the establishment of a National Centre of Mining Equipment, Technology and Services at National Skill Training Institute, Bhubaneswar, expanded vocational partnerships and growing research collaborations illustrate how human capital cooperation is evolving alongside strategic convergence.
The India-Australia partnership represents shared democratic values and historical goodwill, further reinforced by converging identical interests, economic complementarities and common regional responsibilities. Through the outcomes of PM Modi’s visit, both countries emphasized the Indo-Pacific’s crucial geopolitical influence and reaffirmed the need for a trusted partnership to deliver resilient supply chains, secure technologies and long-term regional stability. If the momentum built in Melbourne leads to prompt execution, as PM Modi put it, “Agenda focused like a one-day match, decisions as fast as a T20 and our partnership as long-lasting and deep as a Test match”, the partnership will be well positioned to become one of the Indo-Pacific’s most impactful strategic partnerships over the next decade. These all are comprehensively articulated by Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General CII in a recently published Opinion piece in an Indian daily.
Dr. Shantanu Mukharji is a retired IPS
officer and former National Security
Adviser in Mauritius.
