Australia posts liaison officer at Indian Navy's Information Fusion Centre

Australia has posted a liaison officer at Indian Navy's Gurgaon-based Information Fusion Centre (IFC) that has emerged as a major hub of maritime security information relating to the Indian Ocean, a region witnessing increasing Chinese naval forays.

The Indian Navy established the 'Information Fusion Centre -- Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in 2018 to effectively keep track of the shipping traffic as well as other critical developments in the IOR under a collaborative framework with like-minded countries.

In a tweet, Australian high commissioner Barry O'Farrell AO described the posting of the official from his country at the IFC as an "important milestone" under the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.


"Pleased to attend today's induction ceremony of LCDR Diju Kanjiraparambil at the Information Fusion Centre," he said.

The defence and security ties between India and Australia have been on an upswing in the last few years.

In June last, India and Australia elevated their ties to a comprehensive strategic partnership and signed a landmark deal for reciprocal access to military bases for logistics support during an online summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison.

The Mutual Logistics Support Agreement (MLSA) allows militaries of the two countries to use each other's bases for repair and replenishment of supplies, besides facilitating scaling up of overall defence cooperation.

The Australian Navy was part of the Malabar naval exercise hosted by India in November last. The navies of the US and Japan were also part of it.