Australia launches slew of initiatives to promote soft power & infra projects with India

The Morrison Government is further strengthening Australia’s ties with India, one of Australia’s most important partners in the Indo-Pacific region through a series of initiatives to promote soft power and infrastructure.

Following meetings between the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Marise Payne, and Minister of External Affairs Dr S. Jaishankar in Melbourne, the Morrison Government has launched three Maitri (friendship) initiatives worth nearly 20 million Australian Dollars, which will foster Australia-India cooperation, creativity, understanding and exchange.

The Australian $11.2 million Maitri Scholarships Program will attract and support high achieving Indian students to study at Australian universities. It will showcase Australia’s globally renowned academic and research institutions, particularly in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and health, according to an Australian government statement.


The Australian $3.5 million Maitri Grants and Fellowships Program will build links between our future leaders, supporting mid-career Australian and Indian professionals to collaborate on strategic research and shared priorities, according to the above mentioned statement.

The Australian $6.1 million Australia-India Maitri Cultural Partnership will boost the role of creative industries in our economic and people-to-people ties. This partnership will also promote artistic talent and cultural exchanges in our two countries’ world class visual and performing arts, literature, film, television and music industries.

Following meetings between the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Dan Tehan and Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal here, the Government has also renewed the Australia-India Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Tourism Cooperation and launched the Australia India Infrastructure Forum.

The renewed MoU positions tourism operators to take advantage of our international border re-opening to all fully vaccinated eligible visa holders, including tourists and business travellers from 21 February. Under the MoU, Australia and India will promote travel between the two markets and advance cooperation on tourism policy, data sharing, training and industry engagement, according to the statement.

Pre-pandemic, India was Australia’s fastest-growing source of international visitors. In 2019, almost 400,000 visitors from India visited Australia and spent a combined total of Australian $1.8 billion.

The Australia India Infrastructure Forum will serve as a hub to promote two-way investment in infrastructure. As a side initiative of the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement, currently under negotiation with India, it will also support our broader trade and investment objectives. A new Australian $5.8 million Bay of Bengal Connectivity Partnership will expand this work to other countries in the region.