India, Australia to sign pact to deepen defence industry cooperation

New Delhi: India and Australia have announced work on signing a new memorandum of agreement to deepen defence industrial collaboration, as the defence ministers of the two countries met in the national capital and discussed cooperation in futuristic technology research and increased maritime security cooperation.

Defence minister Rajnath Singh and Australian deputy prime minister and minister for defence Richard Marles co-chaired the second edition of India-Australia Defence Ministers' Dialogue on Monday, discussing advancements in bilateral maritime security cooperation.

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Officials said the two sides noted efforts towards finalising a Joint Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap and agreed to progress collaborative maritime domain awareness activities by maritime patrol aircraft and explore opportunities to enhance undersea domain awareness.

India and Australia already cooperate with information sharing on maritime traffic in the Indian Ocean Region and have several agreements.