India and Australia on Thursday signed three major defence agreements aimed at strengthening their military partnership and deepening cooperation across key areas. The new pacts include an agreement on information sharing, a memorandum of understanding on submarine search and rescue cooperation, and terms of reference to set up joint staff talks between the two-armed forces, the defence ministry said.

During his visit, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh travelled from Sydney to Canberra on board a KC-30A Royal Australian Air Force multirole tanker transport aircraft, where he witnessed an air-to-air refuelling operation of F-35 fighter jets.

The agreements were finalised in Canberra after Singh held wide-ranging talks with Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles. Both leaders reaffirmed their shared commitment to deepen defence cooperation in areas such as joint military exercises, maritime security, defence industry collaboration, and research in science and technology.

The meeting came as India and Australia marked five years of their comprehensive strategic partnership.

Reiterating India’s strong stance against terrorism in the context of Pakistan, Singh said that “terror and talks cannot go together, terror and trade cannot go together and water and blood cannot flow together.” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese briefly joined the discussions to welcome Singh, who is on a two-day visit for the inaugural Australia–India Defence Ministers’ Dialogue.

According to a joint statement, “The dialogue reflected unprecedented progress in the bilateral defence partnership and ministers’ ambition to enhance cooperation, following the four bilateral meetings between the ministers since the elevation of the Australia–India comprehensive strategic partnership in 2020.”

The statement said that Singh and Marles advanced their Prime Ministers’ long-term vision to strengthen collaboration between the two nations, enhance collective capability, and contribute to regional peace and security. “They discussed a joint maritime security collaboration road map to advance maritime cooperation, and looked forward to Prime Ministers renewing and strengthening the joint declaration on defence and security cooperation.”

The two ministers also praised the growing cooperation among Australia, India, Japan, and the United States, noting the increasing strategic convergence within the Quad. “They reaffirmed their commitment to enhancing collaboration on maritime domain awareness and looked forward to a second collaborative activity on the margins of Exercise Malabar in November 2025. Australia and India expressed strong support for initiatives that advance closer maritime surveillance cooperation among the four partners (Quad),” the statement said.

Both leaders also underlined the importance of working with regional partners to maintain “a free, open, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Ministers underscored their strong support for freedom of navigation and overflight, unimpeded trade in the region, and other lawful uses of the sea consistent with international law, particularly the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.”

Developments in the Indo-Pacific, where China is expanding its military and political influence, remained a key focus of the discussions. Similar concerns were also raised in March during the visit of India’s Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan to Australia.

India and Australia, along with the other Quad nations, the United States and Japan, continue to support a rule-based international order to ensure peace, prosperity, and stability in the Indo-Pacific, even as China strengthens its presence by setting up bases, asserting maritime claims, and seeking strategic concessions from smaller nations.