News: Indian and Australia have held their first ever virtual leaders summit.
Facts:
- Comprehensive Strategic Partnership(CSP): Elevated the 2009 bilateral Strategic Partnership to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership(CSP).
- 2+2 Dialogue: Upgraded the existing 2+2 dialogue between their Foreign and Defence Secretaries to the Ministerial level.
- This will bring Australia on par with the 2+2 ministerial level dialogues India already has with the US and Japan, the other members of the Quad grouping.
- Mutual Logistics Support arrangement: Signed the Mutual Logistics Support agreement(MLSA) which will facilitate reciprocal access to military logistics facilities, allow more complex joint military exercise and improve interoperability between the security forces.
- India has such agreements with the US, France, Singapore and South Korea.
- Declaration on the Indo-Pacific region: Reached an understanding on enhancing cooperation between their navies and strengthening maritime domain awareness in the Indo-Pacific region.
- Other Agreements: Several other agreements were signed such as:
- Framework arrangement on cyber and cyber-enabled critical technology cooperation
- Memorandum of understanding(MoU) on cooperation in mining and processing of critical and strategic minerals among others.
