In the middle of the ongoing geopolitical regrouping, while the tariffs in many US countries weigh severely, said Philip Green, Australian High Commissioner to India and Bhutan, although there is a long -term relationship with the United States, a key security partner, Australia stands against tariffs. In an exclusive interview with Hindu in Bengalur, Mr. Green said that despite the sour relations between India and the US, Quad remains relevant for many reasons.
Excerpts from the interview …
What are the impact of American tariffs on Australia and India?
We have a long -term, very deep relationship with the United States, our key security partner, a country that develops very big in our view of everything. But it differs from our friends in Washington. We stand against tariffs. It is behind the open business environment based on rules. This is an important principle as part of our wider support for global rules and standards, and we will cost it the longest. The Australian economy is resistant and although we do not welcome these tariffs, we are sure that Australia can be the weather. Only 5% of the total exports of Australian goods go to the United States and for many years for many reasons we have developed methods to diversify our business relations and places to which we export.
India is a focal country for our diversification efforts. And we think there is huge potential between Australia and India. We are a very complementary economy. We produce many things that India will need for the next phase of economic growth. And this is evident in the case of energy, minerals and metals, green energy, but it also applies in fields such as education and skills where India will have to train an even larger group of young people when they come to the market market, and Australian educational institutions are willing and capable of supporting India in this perspective. I was almost four weeks in Australia and the mood is hovering. We feel as if our government had a good plan, and the Australian industry is fine to deal with challenges, although, as we say, we do not welcome the tariffs that arrived from Washington.
Also for India, Australia can be part of its efforts to diversify their markets. And we already have the first phase of our free trade agreement called Ecta (Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement), but we are looking very seriously on both sides to develop the second phase, and I think that for both Indians and Australians it can be a way to diversify our import base and export base.
We are a changing geopolitical situation. On the other hand, Quad and the US expressed their displeasure about “friendly” with China and Russia. With this shift in dynamics, where is Quad today?
Quad remains very relevant to Australia. We are determined not only to Quad, but also things that means: free, open, prosperous and inclusive indo-pacifik. This is a shared home of Australia and India. And we think that the basic reasons why Quad has been in recent years has been very prevailing, and we know that these views are shared in Washington.
This year, two Quad meetings and the Minister for External Affairs from India and our Foreign Affairs Minister and these meetings have published a strong commi on our continued shared support Quad ando what it means. Now, and especially between Australia and India, I think these basic reality remain strong. And if I read the Indian mood correctly, the ambitions for our partnership, both bilaterally in terms of safety and across Quad, remain strong.
Given that the US, Great Britain and other countries represent challenges to Indian students who seek university education abroad, will acquire Australia?
International education is a key sector for Australia. (Australian) Prime Minister recently released an economic map for relationships in India, Australia, which identified four key sectors, and one of them was education and skills. We can see that there are a large and growing number of young Indian people who want first -class international education in English, and we think our offer is good, both in terms of the quality of our educational institutions, multicultural, warm and pleasant nature of our society, and the fact that we are a superior lifestyle.
There are many Indian students in Australia – about 130,000 in the last number, and it is very welcome. However, there are other ways that Australia can participate in Indian skills, such as research partnerships, partnership with PhD students. Australia responded to the challenge of the Prime Minister Narendry Modi to open the foreign branch campuses in India and the first two foreign universities that decided to accept the challenge are both Australian, Deakin University and the University of Wollongong in Gujarat. Since then, three other Australian universities have said that they have been committed to opening campuses and looking at the Indian states. This provides a real choice for an Indian student and an Indian family. They can choose a high -quality, Australian title in Australia, or they can choose to go to the Australian campus in India, get the same grade quality and for a fraction of the price and without family dislocation.
You mentioned how the Indians are one of the fastest growing demographic groups in Australia. Are there for work or study?
Every year we release about 50,000 visas for studying in Australia and about 100,000 so people can do work in Australia – for a short time or long -term.
Overall, there are more than a million people in Australia in Australia, which is a lot for us because we only have 26-27 million people. They are almost 4% of our population. They contribute very strongly to our lives and economics. Our census statistics argue that a person of Indian origin in Australia is twice as likely than another person in a community that has a master’s or other degree. They are twice as likely than another person in the community to open their own business. And they are one and a half times more often than other groups of migrants who participate in community and sports associations. So we welcome this group of migrants to Australia because we welcomed the waves of migration from other countries at different times.
There is one strange way we try to involve this group in our community. The government has established a Center for Australia-India relations based in parramhatta, which is the Sydney area with a large number of Indian people. It was founded with two very respected Australians of Indian origin as the CEO and Chairman. He intentionally tries to involve the diaspora in Australia to support our bilateral relationship.
Hate crimes, however, in many countries, including Australia, grow against migrants of various origins. How does the Australian government deal with them ensuring the security of migrants?
The first thing I would say is that Australia was and remains one of the safest places on the planet for people of all types and we have an open multicultural society with people from many parts of the planet, and the Australians are proud of the way it worked very well, both for Australia and for those who decided to live between us. There have been recent incidents, and this is deplorable, and our ministers at the highest level were very firmly recorded that the actions of hate and violence in our society had no place. We report them and rely on our security institutions to deal with them with the full force of the law. We continue to support and the vast majority of Australians continue to support, our multicultural society and actions of this kind have no role in the society we have and that we are trying to strengthen.
Indian cricket matches in India generate a huge amount of interest. Do both countries use it for other sporting relationships?
Cricket rules the highest as a top sport between Australia and India and for us is now a competition of highlights. Obviously, the ashes have a large place in Australian history and culture, but nowadays, the global epicenter of the cricket is closer to India and the rivalry between the Australian cricket team and the Indian cricket team is wild and respectful and the beating of India is now one of the highest goals of the Australian cricket team. I do not think that as a government we have done as much as possible on other sports.
Australia will host the Olympic Games in 2032 in Brisbane and India has the ambition to organize the Commonwealth games, the Olympic Games and maybe Asian Games. And we think it is a very great opportunity for both countries. That would be the third Olympics we hosted. And we have a lot of skills and abilities that are needed to provide such a big event. Of course, some of this is in the design of stadiums and sports districts, and we are very proud to be an Australian company that designed Narendra Modi Stadium, and we look forward to the involvement of Australian companies when India continues forward with its main sports ambitions. But they are not just stadiums; It is safety sales, marketing and all disciplines in the sports field where Australia is strong.
Are there any main kinds of partnerships that Australia and India have when it comes to solving the climate crisis?
When the Prime Ministers of Modi and (Australian PM) Albanese met at the annual leaders’ summit in November in November, their focus on this area focused exactly on this area and closed partnership for renewable energy sources. Now it will do a number of things, but at the heart of this we will be partnership that will help achieve the goals of the Prime Minister of 10 million solar roofs. Australia is a country with the largest deployment of solar roofs on the head in the world. Now India is on a similar path and we feel that there are many abilities that Australian companies and research institutions have. Therefore, we bring these abilities to support India. We store, with the main Indian renewable partner, a training center for techniques that will train 2,000 young people, mostly women.
Given that more Indians are dare to explore new places, does Australia plan to cheat them?
Last year we had 450,000 (or about half a million) from India and India is now the fifth largest source market for tourism in Australia. An interesting coincidence is Australia’s fifth largest source market for traveling to India. This is a two -way street. We think it’s a great opportunity. We want to create more direct air routes.
