Australia willing to support India with Coal supplies

The Dollar Business Bureau India and Australia discussed various issues related to the strengthening of the bilateral ties which include the ways for setting up of Bilateral Investment and Trade (BIT) Agreement and Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) among others. As a part of her four-day visit to India, Julie Bishop, Australian Foreign Minister, on Monday, met the Indian Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley. In the meeting, both the sides discussed issues regarding BIT, India’s measures to attract foreign direct investments (FDI) in the recent months, issues on various reforms like opening up of insurance sector, among others. The Union Finance Minister briefed the Australian Minister with the steps being taken by the Government of India towards providing an ‘ease of doing business’ through the implementation of reforms like non-adversarial tax structure, among others. While stating that India has got greater advantage in terms of faster growth and high investment opportunities, the Minister highlighted that the domestic consumption demand is high in India. The Union Finance Minister was also said to have informed that India is gearing for more spending in the irrigation, infrastructure and agricultural sectors in the coming years. The Australian Minister was also said to have urged India to sign FTA with Australia and had also made a statement in this regard, at an event, say the reports. Addressing the inaugural of the ‘Indo-Pacific Oration’ event, the Australian Minister was also quoted to have sought India-Australia cooperation in Indo-Pacific region and also emphasized on need to engage with the countries like China to ensure stability in the region. While expressing Australia’s willingness to extend support to India in the energy sector, she said that Australia is ready to ensure energy security of India and is also ready to further its support with coal, gas and uranium supplies. India and Australia had, in September 2014, signed an agreement for nuclear energy cooperation and are still under negotiations to enable uranium sales to India.    

This article was published on April 14, 2015.