Opening Remarks, Australia-India Defence Ministers' Dialogue, New Delhi

SHRI RAJNATH SINGH, DEFENCE MINISTER OF INDIA: I would like to thank you for taking the time to come here for the Defence Minister’s Dialogue. Before I proceed ahead, I would like to congratulate your government on the recent key defence leadership, the first woman Defence Secretary and the first female Army Chief. I would also like to congratulate your government on the recently released 2026 National Defence Strategy and the 2026 Integrated Investment Program. During the discussions today, I look forward to getting your insights of these deep policy documents and on the potential for growth in India-Australia defence relations. I fondly recall our last meeting in October 2025 in Australia, during the inaugural India-Australia Defence Ministers’ Dialogue and I would like to take this opportunity once again to thank you and your team for the very warm hospitality extended to us during my visit last year. I would also like to thank the Honourable Prime Minister, Mr Anthony Albanese, for his very candid discussions with me and my team during my visit. I am pleased to know that since the establishment of the Defence Ministers’ Dialogue we have witnessed an increase in our defence engagements with many promising milestones in Defence having been achieved since October 2025. I wish to say that this decision for us to meet once every year is an important step towards reviewing the progress of our defence relations and to chart the way of the next few years. I hope to have fruitful discussions today.

RICHARD MARLES, DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER: Thank you very much, your Excellency. It is such a thrill and a pleasure to be back here in India and in New Delhi, and to be here with you. I feel very honoured that with you and I, under our respective leaderships of our defence establishments, we have elevated the defence relationship between Australia and India to one where we now have an annual Defence Ministers’ Dialogue. It was so good to host you in Canberra last year, in October for the inaugural Defence Ministers’ Dialogue and it's wonderful to be able to be back here in Delhi to do the second annual Defence Ministers’ Dialogue. And it speaks to the closeness of the relationship. We did an information sharing arrangement, which we signed in October of last year at our inaugural Defence Ministers’ Dialogue, as one example. We’ve seen a whole lot of progress in relation to how that arrangement has been put into place. We're doing more in exercises, we're certainly doing more in the maritime domain and we'll speak about that in our substantive meeting today, and we’re doing more in defence industry. But across the board, you're seeing a real growth in the relationship between us at a defence level, which fits into a broader growth in the relationship at a whole bilateral level between Australia and India. We have never been more strategically aligned and that alignment is underpinned by deep trust. And I think in the history of the bilateral relationship between Australia and India, right now, we're at a high water mark. When I was here last year, it was the morning after the final of the India Premier League, as it is, of course, this morning. Last night, as we saw a year ago, we saw RCB triumph. But I like the fact that Virat Kohli was 75 not out, he was the man of the match, but alongside him was Josh Hazlewood and Tim David. So there was very much an Australian‑India bilateral theme at play last night as RCB won the IPL and that is emblematic, I think, of the relationship between our countries. I very much look forward to our meeting today.

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