Beyond The Lines | Our world between two poles: Why India-Australia is a natural idea

Doug Walters, the Australian cricketer heard a commotion outside the window of his five-star hotel in Calcutta. It was the fourth test between India and Australia played in the city in 1969. Controversies dogged Bill Lawry’s team for the entire tour of the five test match series, but what Walters faced that day was the weirdest of the lot. A few thousand people stood outside the hotel that day, raising slogans against Walters. The crowds, led by the Communist Party of India, were protesting against Walters’ alleged participation in the Vietnam War. The activists slapped posters on walls around the hotel claiming Walters had killed women and children in Vietnam. However, it was found that false propaganda had triggered outrage among people. Walters was conscripted to National Service, but was allowed exemption to play cricket for Australia. Inexplicably, in that tour, Walters claimed ‘Calcutta was the city I spent the most time out and about!’ So, though discerning activists in Calcutta greeted Walters, the supposed Vietnam veteran, with angry protests, but at the same time embraced Walters, the tourist in the city, with a casual air of indifference. Australia, for years, had been like that to most Indians in the past century: a country of cricketers and early Indian settlers. Many Anglo-Indians chose to settle Down Under after Independence but the passion for everything Australian began and ended on the cricket field. That was the one people-to-people connect that existed amidst an otherwise polite and reciprocal indifference shared by the two countries. As two poles of the hemisphere, the vast oceans and landmasses in between provided options for other friends. But was distance the only reason? Though Australia was one of the first to recognize India’s independence, there wasn’t much historical angst (unlike Great Britain) or economic passion (unlike the US) or ideological affinity (unlike the Soviets) or geographical tension (unlike China). But the sentiments changed after Robert Menzies became prime minister in 1949. In the 1950s, Menzies supported the capitalist bloc and stayed away from associating with India, which was associated with the Soviet-led socialist bloc. The strategic aspirations of the two countries were an outcome of their security and economic considerations. India was rebuilding itself in a hostile neighbourhood and its socialistic outlook and chaotic democracy appeared less business-friendly and more politically tentative than Pakistan — to America and its allies, including Australia. Instead, Pakistan, with a series of easy-to-please dictators, quick decision-making and a familiar capitalist model, was a lazier, easier choice. Australia attempted to mediate between India and Pakistan in the 1950s but was seen as biased towards Pakistan. Impact of the Cold War The years that followed proved how far wrong the West, including Australia, was. Pakistan turned out to be a political disaster and an economic failure, the Soviet Union collapsed and India — much maligned by the likes of Nixon — has lurched, and stumbled but grown from an insipid, socialist laggard to a promising economy at first and then to becoming a potential global economic engine. India, on its part, viewed Australia with similar suspicions as it viewed the West and thus, was confined to the margins. Besides, it didn’t offer anything substantial to lure Australian economic interests. The Cold War ensured that the countries remained in two separate orbits. Australia and India were neither arch-foes nor friends. They remained two fellow students that share an alma mater but no acquaintance. Till they find themselves in the same firm or bond over a common adversary. In this case, both things happened. How did Australia and India get close: Point of convergence The end of the Cold War didn’t mean the end of indifference between the two countries. India’s nuclear testing in 1998 provoked criticism from Australia and a subsequent ban on the sale of uranium to India, which irked the latter. The West, at the same time, was salivating over the prospect of the ‘peaceful rise’ of China. The Western world’s reading of Asia continued to flounder from the ill-timed to the ill-informed. The war on terrorism forced the hand of US President George Bush, who brought on board a politically consistent, market-led democracy that had changed its economic track from 1991. India was acknowledged by President Bush as a powerful and responsible nation in the early 2000s. In 2005, President George W Bush announced a nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and India, and three years later signed the Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement. Gone was the nagging suspicion a few years after India tested the bomb. In 2014, India and Australia signed a Civil Nuclear Deal and in 2017, India received its first shipment of Australian uranium. Multilateralism at the heart of the ‘India-Australia’ idea In the last decade, Australia and India have faced the brunt of Chinese belligerence in the region. Bullying Australia on trade issues, especially import bans on Australian products, and threats on India’s borders were China’s way of fast-tracking a path towards superpower status. The end of the Cold War broke the walls of separation and the two countries began to see more likenesses — in terms of democratic institutions, transparency, markets, warts and all. For India, Australia was finally much more than a cricketing nation and a destination for higher education. The need for a multilateral order in the Indo-Pacific seems to have become more apparent amongst India and Australia as China sails into the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, armed with the ambition of becoming a naval superpower by 2030. The inclusion of Japan is an important one in the region where AUKUS — an exclusive Anglospheric orb of English-speaking nations (the US, UK and Australia) that plans to arm Australia with a nuclear submarine — tends to leave out key regional players such as Japan and India and also France, in a strategic sense. The initiatives on QUAD, on the other hand, reflect an inclusive desire to maintain a multilateral rules-based order in the Indo-Pacific. India has been invited to participate in the Talisman Sabre War games in Australia this year in Queensland and areas around the Coral Sea. Australia joins India, Japan and the US in Malabar naval exercises this year. Easier bridges to cross The end of a bipolar world war triggered curiosity about the trade potential between the two countries. In 2013, Australia formed an India-focused strategy after a study of its economic links and influence in the region. In recent years the China factor has led to a substantial increase in trade and diversification of exports. For instance, the trigger for a 48 per cent rise in India’s imports of Australian goods between April and October in 2022 comes from China’s squeezing of trade terms with Australia. There is a growing realisation that India’s strategic goals can be met by Australian supplies. Take, for instance, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plans of a decarbonized economy. “Australia has 21 out of the 49 minerals that have been identified as necessary to decarbonize the economy”, feels Lisa Singh, CEO of Australia-India institute in Melbourne. When Albanese came to India, the focus was on replacing dependencies on China. For instance, to counter China’s dominance of solar panel production, Australia is wooing Indian investment in the solar sector. The scale would still not worry China’s mammoth size of trade with Australia or India. But, diversification is the first step in negotiating terms of trade with China instead of letting the Asian power turn its formidable presence into an intimidating one. The reality of Indo-Pacific and its future The role of Japan becomes important alongside India and Australia as countries look to diversify dependencies outside China in the region. These three major democracies and key economies in the Indo-Pacific have been discussing potential robust supply chain mechanisms, especially as the world grows more complex and divisive after the Russia-Ukraine war. The impact of the war would be felt more acutely in the Indo Pacific where Chinese political ambitions directly affect trade pacts, supply chains, and exports. The India-Australia ECTA (Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement) that came into force in December 2022, reduces dependencies on Chinese goods that swamp markets in India and Australia. Australia offers zero-duty access to Indian goods for the majority of exports. India will grant Australia concessions on raw materials and intermediates or tariff reductions. The impact would be felt in regular products over time. For instance, China has dominated the Australian market for leather goods, pharma, textiles etc. ECTA makes Indian goods an alternative in Australian markets. India and Australia have ready bridges to assist long-term relationship-building. There is a shared war history. Indian and Australian soldiers fought alongside each other in world wars, the highlight being the contribution of over 15,000 Indian soldiers in the battle of Gallipoli. For many years, such camaraderie was forgotten in the shadow of the cold war. It is important to recall shared precious legacies in order to build common goals. The distance between India and Australia — 22 Yards Cricket remains a language of connect both countries use instinctively. There is an interesting story from 2008, involving the visit of Shyam Saran, former Indian diplomat, to Australia as the Indian PM’s envoy for discussions about engaging in civil nuclear cooperation which included supply of uranium to India. Saran’s meeting with Foreign Minister Stephen Smith took place in Perth, where a test match between India and Australia threw up a controversy involving cricketers Harbhajan Singh and Andrew Symonds. Saran recalls that when he emerged from his meeting with the Australian foreign minister, there was no interest in the media about the critical discussions on nuclear issues. Instead, all questions focused on Harbhajan, Symonds and cricket! Therefore, it was apt that Prime Ministers Albanese and Modi recently held discussions this year on taking the relationship forward with the cricket series between the two countries as the backdrop. Both countries realise that the distance between the two countries is 22 yards (the length of a cricket pitch). And the way to the hearts of citizens on both sides is through the diplomacy of an intelligent game that was once said to be played by flannelled fools. The writer is the author of ‘Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory over China’. His fortnightly column for FirstPost — ‘Beyond The Lines’ — covers military history, strategic issues, international affairs and policy-business challenges. Views expressed are personal. 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