(Image source from: todayonline.com)

India and Australia on Thursday finally sealed an accord on Thursday that grants access to each other’s military bases that would further help improve the mutual defence and exercises.

The agreement, which has been termed as Mutual Logistics Support Agreement was signed with a virtual summit between the Indian PM Narendra Modi and Australia premier Scott Morrison.

“We share democratic values, the rule of law, freedoms, and respect for international institutions. When these are being challenged, we need to strengthen our cooperation,” said PM Modi during the virtual meet.

Morrison asserted that it is time to further grow the relationship broader and deeper.

As per the accord, it further allows the military ships and aircraft to further refuel and access the maintenance facilities. This will further be part of the broader strategy by both the democracies to reduce the dependence on the military and economic weight of China.

The Indian troops are currently in a standoff with the Chinese troops on the disputed border high around the Himalayas.

Even though no shots have been fired from either side, this confrontation on the frontier is likely one of the roughest till date.

Not just India, even Australia have been facing issues with China lately. China is the largest buyer of the exports from Australia but there have been sudden trade disputes between the two countries lately.

Additionally, Australia has also raised certain hackles against China for pushing behind the international review and blamed the country for the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Morrison, who was supposed to visit India during January had to cancel the visit because of the worsening condition of the Australian bush fires. It was again pushed behind because of the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The accords were also finalised to further enhance the cooperation on the cyber and some of the related technologies.

No words have been shared on whether Australia would join India later this year in some of the important naval exercises. The same is going to be held with US and Japan in the Indian and the Pacific Ocean.

China had previously voiced their anger the last time Australia participated in the same back in 2007.

By Somapika Dutta