Penny Wong said, “It’s a real honour to be here for the two plus two. It’s been a big year in the bilateral relationship I think since we were elected some 19 ministerial visits to India by our government…reports Asian Lite News
Calling the partnership with India “consequential” for Australia, Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong said that Canberra deeply values its bilateral relationship with New Delhi, adding that it is “crucial to region” where sovereignty is respected.
In her opening remarks at the India-Australia 2+2 Defence and Foreign Ministerial Dialogue here in the national capital, Penny Wong noted that the two nations have done a lot together bilaterally and hope to do more. She recalled Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s State visit to Australia.
“We’ve done a lot of work together bilaterally and we hope to do more again today. I think what I would emphasize is that we value deeply the bilateral relationship, economic ties, the two way trade and investment, the people to people links the climate initiatives particularly … that we’re working on together. But to again underline what we all know which is this is a partnership which is consequential for us but it is crucial for our region and we see you India as central, crucial to the sort of region we continue to work for peaceful, stable, prosperous where sovereignty is respected and we look forward in this discussion to going further on the ways in which we can both work to deliver that,” she added.
Penny Wong said, “It’s a real honour to be here for the two plus two. It’s been a big year in the bilateral relationship I think since we were elected some 19 ministerial visits to India by our government. We’ve obviously had Prime Minister Modi’s state visit to Australia which was so welcomed.”
The India-Australia 2+2 Defence and Foreign Ministerial Dialogue is co-chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles and Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong. (ANI)
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