India & Australia agreed to work closely together in Quad, trilaterals, G20, UN and other important forums

"It's in our mutual interest to expand our diplomatic footprint in each other's countries," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said after taking stock of the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership between India and Australia along with his counterpart Penny Wong in Canberra on Monday.

Meeting for the 13th Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue, EAM Jaishankar and Australian Foreign Minister Wong discussed a wide range of issues including trade and economy, education, defence and security, as well as clean energy.

"Discussed ECTA progress; defence; counter terrorism; mobility of talent & skills, education; double taxation avoidance; critical minerals; cyber; clean energy and SDGs. Exchanged views on global and regional developments, recognizing our strong convergences and shared interests," EAM Jaishankar said on Twitter.

"Agreed to work closely together in Quad, trilaterals, G20, UN and other important forums," he added.

"Among the many agreements and understandings we reached, were really the fact that it's in our mutual interest to expand our diplomatic footprint in each other's countries. So, we would certainly welcome Australia doing so in India and look forward to doing the same in Australia, at some point of time" EAM Jaishankar said in his opening remarks at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Wong.

EAM Jaishankar continued by saying that there were several areas where they saw considerable potential for improving the quality of the India-Australia bilateral cooperation.

"One of them is a proposal that's been under discussion for an understanding on mobility, on mobility of talent and skills, how we can grow education and what we could do particularly bearing in mind, India's New National Education Policy," he said.

He went on to say, "We certainly would like to see Australia, which is one of our major partners in education, also having a stronger presence in India, and that's something which our Prime Ministers had discussed as well when they had met in Tokyo."

He also noted that the economic cooperation and trade agreement that was finalized earlier this year was moving towards its ratification and entry into force. "That's a very good development," he remarked.

EAM Jaishankar also emphasized that the discussions were supported by the shared belief in the rules-based international order shared by Australia and India, both of which are liberal democracies.