India, Australia upgrade strategic talks to Minister level, as with US, Japan

News: Indian and Australia have held their first ever virtual leaders summit.

Facts:

• Comprehensive Strategic Partnership(CSP): Elevated the 2009 bilateral Strategic Partnership to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership(CSP).
• 2+2 Dialogue: Upgraded the existing 2+2 dialogue between their Foreign and Defence Secretaries to the Ministerial level.
  • This will bring Australia on par with the 2+2 ministerial level dialogues India already has with the US and Japan, the other members of the Quad grouping.
• Mutual Logistics Support arrangement: Signed the Mutual Logistics Support agreement(MLSA) which will facilitate reciprocal access to military logistics facilities, allow more complex joint military exercise and improve interoperability between the security forces.
  • India has such agreements with the US, France, Singapore and South Korea.
• Declaration on the Indo-Pacific region: Reached an understanding on enhancing cooperation between their navies and strengthening maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific region.
• Other Agreements: Several other agreements were signed such as:
  • Framework arrangement on cyber and cyber-enabled critical technology cooperation
  • Memorandum of understanding(MoU) on cooperation in mining and processing of critical and strategic minerals among others.