“Australia’s Pivot to India” a book by Dr. Andrew Charlton MP

Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese has launched a book by Dr. Andrew Charlton MP (Federal Member for Parramatta) “Australia’s Pivot to India”

a crowd of over 550 attended the event include Australian Parliamentarians, councilors, community leaders, the World Observer Media and a large gathering of community members in the area.

In Australia’s Pivot to India, Dr Charlton provides an authoritative analysis of Australia’s relationship with India, explains why now the time to seize the opportunity for collaboration and cooperation is, and outlines a vision for the Australia–India partnership that will enhance Australia’s security and prosperity in the twenty-first century.

“In the coming decades, India will play a crucial role in how Australia engages with the world: economically, culturally and militarily.

This book tells the story of India’s transformation from a colonial vassal to a global superpower, and how the Australia-India relationship will shape the futures of both countries in years to come.

I was thrilled to share this special moment with so many members of the local Indian community.

India is on the rise to become the next global superpower, with a population expected to be larger than the United States and China combined by 2050. For Australia, as the world grows more volatile, India has emerged as a new geopolitical partner offering hope for a more secure and balanced Indo-Pacific region. “Added Dr Charlton

Prime Minister SPEECH in the event:

I begin by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and I pay my respects to their elders past, present and emerging.

I am proud to lead a Government that will give every Australian the opportunity to vote Yes for recognition, vote Yes for listening and vote Yes for better results on October 14.

I’m very pleased to be here to launch Andrew Charlton’s new book.

To be fair, he did put me on the cover. But the inside is even better!

Australia’s Pivot to India is a thoughtful, warm and optimistic work that educates us about the past and challenges us for the future.

We get an engaging recap of modern India’s transformation from an inward-looking, high-tariff economy, to one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.

We learn the evolution of its foreign policy and strategic thinking, the move from declared, formalised non-alignment, to a more creative multi-alignment, with a greater emphasis on self-reliance as well as sovereignty.

And this book also confirms that while India was embarking on this journey, Australia was very much running on a parallel track.

Australia was modernising our economy and building new trade relationships but not enough with India.

We were engaging with our region and building a greater network of multilateral relationships but not enough with India.

Occasionally, governments would ‘discover’ India with a burst of enthusiasm.

But as Andrew writes, there was ‘no central core’ to the relationship.

The affection was broad and genuine but there was little depth.

Or as Gareth Evans says, there was no ‘ballast’.

This meant that when tensions arose, there was no way of maintaining continuity and communication.

Instead, any disagreement risked a spell in the diplomatic deep freeze.

And so, for too long, the bilateral relationship was underdone, under-explored and under-examined.

Happily as this book records that has changed a great deal in recent years.

Not only is our bilateral relationship stronger and deeper than it has ever been our multilateral engagement has gone to a new level.

We are, in Andrew’s words, building:

“A distinctive relationship that goes beyond transactional engagement and circumstantial alignment”

We see that in the revitalised Quad, the co-operation in Exercise Malabar as well as the work we are doing through the G20 on climate change and food security.

But just as importantly, we see it beyond summits and statecraft.

We see it in our people.

In communities like this one.

In a diaspora driven by aspiration.

In one of the many great little facts in this book – the top four names registered to play cricket in Australia this summer are Singh, Smith, Patel and Jones.

We see it in students and skilled migrants eager to embrace opportunities to better themselves.

And we see it travelling back the other way, as more Australian businesses get serious about India.

As small businesses show the leadership to take risks, invest and build connections.

With Deakin University becoming the first foreign tertiary education institution in the world, to open a campus in India.

It’s fitting that Andrew dedicates this book to his electorate and to the India diaspora because our people will be the pivot point.

Our people will be the ‘central core’ of a stronger, deeper and more diversified relationship between Australia and India.

They are not just the ballast, they are the engine.

Not just securing the relationship but taking it forward.

Andrew, congratulations on this important book.

I can promise you that as the Member for Parramatta and as a member of a Labor Government focused on deepening Australia’s relationship with India and determined to build greater peace, prosperity, security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, you are already helping write the sequel.

It’s a great pleasure to launch Australia’s Pivot to India.

Andrew Charlton

Andrew Charlton is the federal MP for Parramatta, former senior economic adviser to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and serves as the chair of the Parliamentary Friends of India. He has a PhD in economics from Oxford University, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. Andrew is the author of Ozonomics, Fair Trade for All (written with Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz) and two Quarterly Essays. His forthcoming book is Australia’s Pivot to India.