Australia-India FTA will boost PM Modi's ‘Make in India’ initiative: Ex-PM Abbott to WION

Lauding India and Australia for sealing the free trade agreement (FTA) after 10-year-long talks, Australia’s former prime minister Tony Abbot has hoped that the pact benefits both the countries and also gives a massive boost to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ programme.

In an exclusive conversation with WION’s Diplomatic Corresponded Sidhant Sibal, Abbott, who is also a key architect of the FTA, said that this free trade deal seeks to substitute China with India as Australia’s main trading partner.

WION: You are being credited for the India-Australia Free Trade Agreement, how do you see this free trade helping both the countries?

Tony Abbott: It was a great team effort from both sides. Indian commerce minister Goyal did a fabulous job and so did minister Dan Tehan for Australia. In the end, it was the prime minsters Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison that really made it happen. I saw my role happening about six months ago when things were stacked. Back in 2004, when I first met Modi (who was then CM of Gujarat), I raised the idea of a free trade deal. He was very enthusiastic, and I guess I made the most of my friendship with PM Modi to make sure to seal the deal with India because, let's face it, the world is bidding a path to India's door and Australia could have been easily neglected amongst other countries. But thank God, we weren't.

WION: How do you see the India-Australia relationship panning out? Because there are a lot of positive developments. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi met three times in a gap of one month.

Tony Abbott: The India-Australia relationship is strong. But historically, it's been underdeveloped. And for a lot of reasons, it needs to develop. Quite quickly, for economic reasons, we had to kind of replace China in supply chains and frankly, there is no better substitute for China in so many of the supply chains given India's very sophisticated manufacturing bias.

There is also the geostrategic issue. The world is more polarised now than it has been for many years. India is a democracy under the rule of law, and so is Australia. The other thing is that there are millions of Australians with Indian backgrounds now. These are people who have very strong links to India and what's going to make this trade deal work is not the government or individuals or businesses.

It is all of those Australians with Indian connections, and all of those Indians with Australian connections are going to make this whole thing work. I am very confident that there will be a lot more Australian coal and other minerals, particularly strategic minerals, to help Prime Minister Modi's ‘Made in India’ campaign. But I am also very confident that we will also get Indian jewellery, and textiles as well as intermediate goods. India is an extraordinary manufacturing country and let's make the most of it in Australia.

WION: You mentioned China, it is a big worry for India as well as Australia. How do you see the Chinese role in the Indo Pacific where they have been very aggressive in terms of weaponising trade?

Tony Abbott: That's why China is not a trustworthy partner at the moment. China has been weaponising trade against us, China has been either bribing or bullying other countries right around the region, including quite close to India, and this is just not right. The country should have a right to have good relations with those they choose. But you do not want to see a large and powerful country either bullying or bribing others. Relationships got to be on a fair, honourable and transparent basis and that hasn't always been the case with China.

WION: You mentioned many things between India and Australia about how relationships have been going, but it's the diaspora perhaps that is essentially being the living bridge between the two countries.

Tony Abbott: Indian people have been coming to Australia for 200 years. But in the last 30 years, there has been a massive influx of Indian people to Australia. Some of them came as students and stayed. Others have just come because they have heard what a great country is, and what a wonderful opportunity Australia has to offer. Indians are first-class people, they have become wonderful contributors and citizens. I am confident that one of the ways they can continue to contribute to their own country as well as ours is by enhancing our two-way trade.

WION: There are a lot of convergences between the two countries, there must be some areas where both the countries can work. What are those areas?

Tony Abbott: I think critical minerals are going to be very important in the economic sphere. The education sector can continue to develop. I think Australia has certain strengths in resources and agriculture which India can benefit more from, and just the fact that India is such an incredibly capable country and the supply chains where we've been China dependent, it would really help if we could substitute China.

Watch |Former Australian PM Tony Abbott speaks to WION on growing India-Australia partnership