First India-France-Australia Trilateral Dialogue Organised Virtually

The first India-France-Australia Trilateral Dialogue was held virtually on September 9, 2020.  The virtual dialogue focuses on enhancing the cooperation in the Indo-Pacific Region. The trio discussed on economic, geo-strategic challenges and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region in the backdrop of increasing Chinese aggression. The dialogue was joined by,

• Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary of India.
• François Delattre, Secretary-General, French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.
• Frances Adamson, Secretary, Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Highlights

In the first ever trilateral dialogue, key discussions that were held includes:

• Economic and Geo-strategic Challenges that countries are facing in the Indo-pacific region amidst COVID-19.
• Cooperation on trilateral and regional level on “Marine Global Commons”
• Increasing practical cooperation between the three countries through multilateral organisations including ASEAN, Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and Indian Ocean Commission.
• Priorities, challenges, trends and reforms in regional and global multilateral institutions.
• They agreed to cooperate with each other so as to ensure a peaceful, secure, prosperous and rules-based Indo-Pacific Region.

 Indo-Pacific Region

The Indo-Pacific region is the area around Indian and Pacific Oceans between East Coast of Africa and West Coast of America. The term Indo-Pacific started gaining momentum very recently. Earlier, Asia-Pacific term was used that excluded India. But now there is a global shift to Indo-Pacific that signifies the importance of India in the region to face geo-strategic challenges. One of the major challenge include expansion policy of China by creating artifical Islands around the territories of other countries. So, these countries wants India to make presence in South China Sea region so as to counter China.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2020