Regime change in Australia won’t harm ties
Even as yet another administration prepares to take charge in Canberra, New Delhi has little reason to worry about the India-Australia bilateral. The newly-elected liberal-National Coalition — a formal alliance of centre-right parties — has traditionally favoured good relations with India and Prime Minister-elect Tony Abbott has been vocal in his support for strong India-Australia ties. In fact, it was his political mentor John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, whose unqualified enthusiasm for a rapidly-growing India pulled out bilateral ties from a state of apathy and neglect and put them on the fast track. The foundation that the Howard regime set was one of the most important reasons why the relationship not just survived but emerged stronger in the face of subsequent setbacks, especially the 2009-2010 student crisis. Equally importantly, it was the Coalition Government that first revoked the ban on uranium exports to India. That decision was quickly reversed by the succeeding labour Party Government of Mr Kevin Rudd, only to be overturned recently by his successor Julia Gillard. In the two years that she was at the helm, Ms Gillard took a personal initiative to consolidate and expand gains made in the India-Australia relationship in the recent past. When she was replaced earlier this year by Mr Rudd again, there were concerns of the relationship atrophying. However, we now know that they were unfounded. There is a bipartisan consensus in Canberra on the need to maintain a robust relationship with New Delhi. Regardless of the party in power, it is not expected to change. As Mr Abbott himself said at an Indian business event in Australia last year, “There are three categories of countries that are particularly important to Australia — our neighbours, our major trading partners and our key strategic allies... and India falls into all three categories”.
Sceptics will be quick to point out that there are no guarantees that the Coalition Government will continue with the policies of the outgoing labour Party regime (which recognised India as a key Australian partner) to which it is ideologically opposed. Yet, there is nothing to suggest that Mr Abbott has any radical foreign policy changes up his sleeve, partly because his focus will be on pressing domestic concerns and partly because as an old-school conservative politician, he can be trusted to play safe in a field where he has limited experience. Finally, some critics may point to his recent media engagement during which he did not mention India as one of his top overseas travel priorities, while Indonesia, South Korea, Japan and China made it to the list. While this struck a jarring note, it was possibly just an oversight. India remains one of the five priority countries for Australia identified in the Asian Century White Paper prepared by the Gillard Government. However, India can continue to be an important business and diplomatic player for the Australians if it gets its falling act together.