After five decades of testy or distant strategic relations, India and Australia began in the early 2000s to forge an increasingly cooperative defence and security partnership. The primary drivers were similar concerns about China’s rise, behaviour, and assertiveness, as well as converging views about the regional strategic landscape. Today, all the major elements of a robust defence partnership are in place, although still at very early stages of development. Important constraints remain, including mismatched capabilities, divergent priorities, and differing strategic circumstances, especially concerning relations with China and the United States. In addition to appreciating and navigating these differences, New Delhi and Canberra can enhance their strategic partnership by structuring and prioritising their consultations, improving military interoperability, deepening technological collaboration, and broadening relations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced countries around the globe into lockdown, imposing trade and travel restrictions with devastating economic impacts on all sectors of the economy. In working toward greater economic stability, Australia has been strengthening its trade relations with other countries, which is reflected through its increased strategic relations with India. However, it is now essential to explore how Australia is working to further expand its collaboration with other South Asian countries and find new markets and opportunities for trade, investment, tourism, international education, and business dealings for its resources, services, manufacturing, and technology sectors. Strategic Cooperation and Partnerships Between Australia and South Asia: Economic Development, Trade, and Investment Opportunities Post COVID-19 provides an overview of the Australian trade and investment relationship with South Asian countries and identifies the trends and developments of bilateral trade agreements in strategic areas of trade, tourism, investment, education, prior and post COVID-19. Covering topics such as international trade, climate change policy, and macroeconomics, it is ideal for policymakers, practitioners, industry professionals, government officials, academicians, researchers, instructors, and students.

As the India Australia relationship upgrades from 3Cs of Cricket, Curry and Commonwealth to 3Ds of Defence, Diplomacy and Diaspora, the evolving dynamics of the relationship have a huge potential for both the countries. The opportunities provided by the 3Ds are immense and are having incremental, clear and conclusive repercussions for the relationship. Based on Defence, Diplomacy and Diaspora and supported by specifics, India and Australia in Indo-Pacific provides an insight into the interplay between the three Ds and attempts to lend a prognostication for the bilateral relationship.

This volume focuses on the rapidly expanding strategic relationship between India and Japan, expanding on the hitherto under-analyzed concept of “strategic partnership,” tracing the history of the interaction, and gauging its current and future trajectories. The rise of China and its challenge to U.S. dominance of the global system is the setting in which the partnership has assumed a major profile, incorporating both defence and economic cooperation on an unprecedented scale. The increasing congruence of Indian and Japanese interests is juxtaposed with the inherent limitations of the partnership to portray a complex picture of a kind of strategic relationship that has become a staple of contemporary international politics.

The emergence of India as a regional and potentially global power is forcing us to rethink our mental map of the Asia Pacific. We are only just beginning to discern how India may alter the global economic landscape. How will the rise of India change the strategic landscape of Asia and beyond? This book provides a comprehensive assessment of India's international relations in the Asia Pacific, a region which has not traditionally been understood to include India. It examines India’s strategic thinking about the Asia Pacific, its relationships with China and the United States, and India's increasingly close security ties with other major countries in the region. It considers the consequences of India’s rise on the Asia Pacific strategic order and asks whether India is likely to join the ranks of the major powers of the Asia Pacific in coming years.