MELBOURNE: US today backed Australia’s growing engagement with India with the Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stressing that a deepening military cooperation should include naval exercise.
Describing Australia and the Asia-Pacific region as a key focus of America’s expanding engagement in the region, Clinton now on a visit here, said that both India and Australia should work closely together, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The US Secretary of State, in the course of her address to the Australia-United States Ministerial (AUSMIN) meeting in Perth, referred India as the “world’s largest democracy and a dynamic emerging economy” and said “we would welcome joint Australia-Indian naval vessel exercises in the future and we’re eager to work together in the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Co-operation”.
She said the US had made a strategic priority of encouraging India to play a larger role in world affairs.
After the meeting, the US announced setting up of a powerful radar station and space telescopes in Australia as part of Washington’s moves to refocus its priority towards Asia.
The transfer of C-band radar will considerably increase the capacity to monitor space debris in this part of the world.
On the topic of Indian Ocean, the US Secretary of State said, “Increasingly, these waters are at the heart of the global economy and a key focus of America’s expanding engagement in the region what we sometimes call our pivot to Asia”. -PTI
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