As US President Donald Trump’s steep 50 per cent tariffs kicked in on Wednesday, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said her country does not support tariffs.
She said Australia wants a “deep, strong and trusted partnership” with India.
On the US tariffs, Wong said: “I will leave you to comment on your bilateral relationships. I can tell you what Australia’s position is… we don’t support tariffs. We believe in the logic of the post-War economic order, that openness can enable growth, and our economy is a testament to that.”
Asked about the Trump administration’s turn against India in recent months after she and External Affairs minister S Jaishankar attended the US President’s inauguration in January this year, Wong said: “What we would want as friends of both countries is to say we share so much, not just history, but clear objectives about the attributes of the (Indo-Pacific) region. We always encourage dialogue, and we are strong supporters of the Quad.”
Wong was speaking with a visiting delegation of Indian journalists of which The Indian Express is a part.
Asked about India’s efforts to repair ties with China, she called it a “great power” which is asserting its interests as “great powers do”. Some of those interests, she said, don’t align with Australia’s.
“There will be differences in the relationship. We also have areas where we can cooperate… We cooperate, where we can. We disagree, where we must. And, we engage in the national interest… That’s the approach we take, and, from my observation, it’s the approach India seeks to take,” she said, while answering questions on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to China for the SCO summit and New Delhi’s efforts to repair ties with Beijing.
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Wong said: “I want to emphasise the value we place on our relationship with India. I met with Dr Jaishankar more than any other counterpart, which reflects the priority we give to this relationship… We are in a time of great change. I think what you see in Australia is a very reliable, stable partner that shares a great deal of your strategic objectives, which are what I describe as a peaceful, stable and prosperous region in which everyone’s sovereignty is respected”.
On the impact of bilateral tension between India and the US having an adverse impact on Quad, she said: “We are strong supporters of the Quad, and I will leave it to others to deal with, engage bilaterally on issues that they want to deal with… we have a lot of shared objectives around the Indo-Pacific. We are Quad partners because we have those shared strategic objectives.”
On the bilateral front, she recalled Quad meetings, and bilateral meetings between Prime Minister Modi and Australian PM Anthony Albanese. “We want a deep, strong and trusted partnership with you… We can talk through the gamut of the whole breadth of our relationship… We do a lot together, but I think fundamentally, it comes back to this. We are in a time where the world is, the global order is being reshaped, the regional order is being reshaped, and we have a responsibility to influence that reshaping. And we want to work with India, because we see a lot of convergence and alignment in the sort of outcomes we want from that reshaping. We see the attributes of the region that we want as being shared…So, it’s a very important time for us to keep working together.”
She said there are several areas where there is “strategic alignment”, and pointed out the presence of the Indian diaspora.
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On the recent visa fee hikes faced by international students in Australia, including Indian students, she said: “What we have is education exports… So international students coming to Australia is a very important part of our economy, and it’s also a very important part of our bilateral relationships and our regional relationships…. There have been various reforms in the education area. They are about trying to improve the quality of the educational offer. We will continue to welcome international students, but we have sought to improve the quality of that education and also to stabilise the numbers, which spiked as a consequence of post covid.”
On Australia’s support for India after the Pahalgam terror attack, she said, “I spoke to your foreign minister after that, and you saw, as you said, my public comments. We welcomed the ceasefire. We welcome efforts to assure peace and stability, and often, obviously, one of the key aspects of that is to counter terrorism.”.
(The reporter is in Australia at the invitation of the Australian Foreign Ministry)
