Foreign diplomatic relations between Australia and India are well-established, with both nations sharing a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" since both were part of the British Empire. Both are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, and share political, economic, security, lingual and sporting ties. Besides strong trading & migration, culture, arts, music, commercial & international sports like cricket, tennis, badminton have emerged as a strong cultural connection between the two nations. Military cooperation between Australia and India includes the regular joint naval exercise AUSINDEX. Both countries are part of the Quad. The relationship is supported by the Centre for Australia-India Relations, a government centre within Australia's foreign affairs portfolio.
History
Pre-1788
Prior to colonisation of Australia, there is evidence of ancient migration of Indians to Australia around 4,000 to 5,000 years ago based on DNA and language development in native Indians and Indigenous Australians according to a recent study.
1788–1947: Colonial era
The ties between Australia and India started immediately following European settlement of Australia in 1788. On the founding of the penal colony of New South Wales, all trade to and from the colony was controlled by the British East India Company, although this was widely flouted. An early ship built in India from Calcutta, the newly renamed Sydney Cove was marooned, with its cargo of rum, off Tasmania, and the crew (including 12 Indian lascars) made a journey in 1796 CE, initially rowing a long boat, and then a long trek from Tasmania to Sydney, with only one Indian and two British sailors surviving.
The Western Australian town of Australind (est. 1841) is a portmanteau word named after Australia and India. Mangalore city is present in both India and Australia (Mangalore, Karnataka, Mangalore, Victoria, Mangalore, Tasmania and Mangalore, Queensland). Australian towns of Cervantes, Northampton and Madura (est. 1876) were used for breeding cavalry horses for the British Indian Army during the late 19th century. The horses were used in the North-West Frontier Province (now Pakistan).
In the early colonies, Indians were brought to Australia as labourers and domestic workers, with migration being curtailed after federation. Gradual migration during the later years of the White Australia policy saw workers moving to Australia especially during periods of labour shortage, such as the Sikhs in Woolgoolga.
India remained an important destination for Australian agricultural exports after the Australian colonies federated in 1901, also importing significant quantities of gold and silver from Australia. In the 1930s, the Australian government's Eastern Trade Advisory Committee assessed trade between Australia and India and found it was hampered by the lack of a direct shipping service. The British India Steam Navigation Company provided an indirect service carrying jute from India to Australia and returning to India with Australian horses. Trade was also hampered by India's high import duties, as Imperial Preference did not apply. In the mid-1930s Australian exports to India were around £800,000 () annually.
In December 1939, the Menzies government appointed Roy Gollan as Australia's first official trade representative in India, based in Calcutta. An assistant trade commissioner was later appointed in New Delhi, while Australian interests were also represented on the Eastern Group Supply Council during World War II, establishing "a firm Australian presence in India in the 1940s". In 1944, British prime minister Winston Churchill appointed former Australian government minister Richard Casey as governor of Bengal.
1947–present: After Indian Independence
After World War II, the Australian government of Ben Chifley supported the independence of India from the British Empire to act as a frontier against communism. Later, under Robert Menzies, Australia supported the admission of India as a Republic to the Commonwealth Nations. In 1950, Menzies became the first Australian prime minister to visit India, where he met with the governor-general Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
As part of the Colombo Plan,Rao, p. 107. many Indian students were sponsored to come and study in Australia in the 1950s and 1960s. Easing of restrictions in the late 1960s saw an increase in non-European Indians migrating to Australia especially professionals. In 2011–12, Indians were the largest source of permanent migration to Australia. Australia is also the second most popular destination for Indian university students, with nearly 60,000 Indians on student visa in Australia in 2017.
After independence, Australia has maintained relations with both India and Pakistan, with some concern from India over defence sales over the border such as 50 Mirage fighter jets and parts in 2007.
On 30 April 2024, It was reported in the media that in 2020, Australia removed Indian spies from the country.
On November 4, 2024, S. Jaishankar and Jeannette Young jointly opened a new Indian Consulate in Brisbane.
Diplomatic relations
India first established a Trade Office in Sydney, Australia in 1941. It is currently represented by a High Commissioner in the Indian High Commission at Canberra and Consulate generals in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne. Australia has a High Commission in New Delhi, India and Consulates in Mumbai and Chennai. In early 2018, the Australian government announced that a Consulate-General in Kolkata would be established particularly to encourage business with India's growing mining sector.
Besides both being members of the Commonwealth of Nations, both nations are founding members of the United Nations, and members of regional organisations including the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation and ASEAN Regional forum.
Australia has traditionally supported India's position on Arunachal Pradesh, which is subject to diplomatic disputes between India and the People's Republic of China. In 2023, then Australian high commissioner to India Barry O'Farrell said Arunachal Pradesh was integral to India.
The Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing, a botched attempt to allegedly assassinate the Indian prime minister at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1978 received significant attention at the time.
Although Australia and India sometimes had divergent strategic perspectives during the Cold War, in recent years there have been much closer security relations, including a Joint Declaration on Security Cooperation in 2009.
Recent visits by Indian and Australian prime ministers, such as Tony Abbott's visit in 2014, and later the same year Narendra Modi's visit to Australia - the latter being the first by an Indian prime minister in 28 years, and Malcolm Turnbull's visit in 2017 continued to progress the relationship. During the visit, in Mumbai, Turnbull announced he would commission an independent 'India Economic Strategy' to guide ties out to 2035.
Australian prime minister Scott Morrison was scheduled to visit New Delhi in January 2020, but postponed it due to the bush fires in Australia. The rescheduled plan for May was put on hold due to the outbreak of COVID-19. Instead, on 4 June, Indian prime minister Narendra Modi held his first virtual bilateral summit, with Morrison. Modi started that he hoped to expand the strategic partnership with Australia, against the backdrop of China's renewed efforts to increase its influence in the Indo-Pacific region. The summit occurred amid new tensions between China and Australia over Canberra's call for a global inquiry into the origin of COVID-19, and then-recent Chinese military incursions into territory claimed by India.
In February 2020, Australia made the first political appointee in recent era to the role of High Commissioner to New Delhi, The Hon Barry O'Farrell AO. This began a period of enormous growth in the Australia-India relationship, though O'Farrell acknowledged often his achievements picked up where his predecessor, Harinder Sidhu, had left off. Nonetheless, the first half of O'Farrell's tenure featured unparalleled activity and ambition in the Australia-India relationship: signing a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership; agreeing a free trade deal (ECTA); initiating an Australia-India Foreign and Defence 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue; Australia's re-entry into Exercise Malabar; Australian Navy participation in India's Exercise Milan; establishment of a Strategic National Security Cyber Dialogue; the inaugural Australia-India Circular Economy Hackathon; delivering an Australia-India Business Exchange; and refreshing the India Economic Strategy.
O'Farrell's tenure also featured a high tempo of two way bilateral visits, including: the first visit by an Indian External Affairs Minister to Australia in nine years (February 2022); three visits by an Indian External Affairs Minister to Australia in one year (February 2022, October 2022, February 2023); and twelve Australian ministers visiting India between May 2022 and July 2023, including the historic first visit by Australia's deputy prime minister and defence minister Marles in June 2022. When O'Farrell departed New Delhi, several prominent Indian think tanks, including India Foundation, held farewell events for him with prominent leaders and commentators expressing gratitude for the impact he made on Australia-India relations.
In September 2021, in the first visit to India by Australian ministers since the outbreak of the pandemic, India hosted the inaugural Australia-India Foreign and Defence 2+2 Dialogue.
In March 2022, Prime Minister Morrison announced a suite of initiatives that formed the largest ever boost to bilateral ties with India by an Australian Government, covering the breadth of shared priorities. This included the Centre for Australia-India Relations (CAIR) and expanded diplomatic presence in India and the Indian Ocean.
In March 2022, Australia returned 29 antiquities to India, as part of India's efforts to reclaim its cultural heritage from around the world. The artifacts date back to various time periods, and primarily include sculptures and paintings composed of sandstone, marble, bronze, brass and paper.
Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese visited India in March 2023, making him the first Australian prime minister to visit the country since 2017. Albanese visited Ahmedabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi, and his visit included a tour of India's first indigenously built aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant. Prime Minister Modi visited Australia in May 2023. In September 2023, Albanese visited India for the G20 Summit.
Following the departure of O'Farrell in July 2023, there was a slowdown in diplomatic activity. The new Australian high commissioner, H E Philip Green OAM, arrived with less experience or connections with India in comparison to his recent predecessors. By comparison: O'Farrell had served as the Deputy Chair of the Australia-India Council Board (2015-19), and as Premier of New South Wales (NSW) had established sister-state agreements between NSW and Gujarat and Maharashtra; Harinder Sidhu had personal and cultural ties with India; and Patrick Suckling had served in New Delhi as a junior diplomat.
On 1 July 2025, the CEO of the Centre for Australia India Relations (CAIR) resigned in a shock move, with media reporting the decision was due to "bureaucratic pressures" from Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The resignation sparked concern among commentators about how Australia's bureaucracy was handling the Australia-India relationship.