Gateway House interviews David Brewster, Visiting Fellow, Strategic
& Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, and Senior
Visiting Fellow, Maritime Studies Programme, Gateway House, on his
latest report, ‘The India-Australia Security Engagement: Opportunities
and Challenges’
Q. In your paper, you have mentioned about potential cooperation on the Antarctic. Please elaborate on this aspect.
The Australians have had stations in the Antarctic for some 60 years I
believe. Indians have been there for a shorter period. But just
recently India opened a new major station near the Australian stations.
That has opened up a potential for greater co-operation including in
logistics which in the Antarctic is extremely important.
So Australia
could help ease some of the logistic challenges that India faces. Also
there are a lot of complementarities in terms of the scientific research
India and Australia are carrying out in the Antarctic.
Q. In the context of the recent aggressive behaviour by China in
asserting its territorial claims, there has been a talk that India,
Australia, Japan and the U.S. should think about reviving the
Quadrilateral Security Dialogue first tried in 2007. You have spoken
about the Quadrilateral as one of the missed opportunities for deepening
the India-Australia bilateral. What, in your view, would be the
challenges for reviving this initiative?
There are a lot of opportunities to do something of that nature,
particularly with the new Japanese government under Mr. Abe. The
original Quadrilateral idea was his, so I think the Japanese have a
renewed interest in something of that nature. The Australians I think
have a lot of interest in moving the India relationship past bilateral
to include at least trilateral relationships with countries like
Indonesia or Japan or the U.S.
Q. India has an adverse view of China. What has been Australia’s perception?
Australia has a different relationship with China in economic terms,
and also geographically China’s not a neighbouring country. We don’t
have some of the historical issues that exist between India and China.
But certainly over the last five years or so there have been growing
concerns about the assertiveness of China in South and East China Sea
and we’d like to see China acting in a responsible manner as a major
power. I think that there is a lot that Australia and India can do
together to figure out mechanisms to bring China into a relationship in
the Indian Ocean region where it can play a positive role.
Q. Recently, navies of India and Australia participated in
the multinational Exercise Milan in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
How do you envisage the future of this naval engagement?
The naval engagement will be one of the key areas of engagement
between India and Australia in the security dimension. I expect that
most countries in the region would see that this partnership will help
manage and provide security within the region.
Q. You have stated that India and Australia can cooperate
in developing amphibious capabilities using Australia’s expertise in
this field. Can you explain this?
Both countries are building their capabilities by acquiring
amphibious ships whose primary use will be to provide humanitarian and
disaster relief. For example, if there’s an earthquake or a cyclone that
devastates a state in South East Asia, these are the ships on which aid
and assistance are going to be delivered. So I think that there is a
lot of potential for India and Australia to cooperate and provide
assistance if an event like that happens.
Q. Coastal security has proved to be a great challenge for the Indian authorities. What insights can Australia offer?
Coastal security in Australia is not really directed at maritime
terrorist attacks, as it is in India. Nevertheless it has led to
Australia developing a very successful system of being able to track the
movements of vessels throughout much of the Indian Ocean by putting
together information from a whole variety of sources. I think there are
probably a lot of lessons that Indian authorities can learn.
Q. Which are the other areas where India and Australia can deepen the engagement?
The two armies have many shared traditions stemming from the British
links. Increasingly the Indian Air Force is acquiring a lot of equipment
from the U.S. which means that in a few years time India and Australia
will share many of the same platforms. That opens up a lot of potential
for cooperation in maintenance, training, doctrine and the like. There
are other areas that can follow on such as sharing of defence technology
and cooperation in the Antarctic.
Q. Given India’s cumbersome bureaucratic decision-making
process on arms procurement, how do you envision India-Australia
cooperation in the arena of defence technology?
Given that Australian companies working in that sector have much less
resources than the big American or French companies, I think it would
put off a lot of companies given the difficulties, time and expense
experienced in India. Nevertheless, there can be cooperation between the
two government-run defence research organisations.
