Turnbull assures PM of Australia’s support to India’s NSG bid

From K J M Varma Hangzhou, Sep 4 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi todaymet his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull who assuredhis country’s support to India’s bid for the NSG membershipand the two leader agreed to deepen the bilateral defence andsecurity cooperation. Prime Minister Modi thanked Turnbull for Australia’spro-active support to India’s membership of the elite nucleartrading club when the two leaders met on the sidelines of theG20 Summit, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson VikasSwarup told reporters here. "Prime Minister Turnbull assured that Australia willcontinue to support India’s inclusion in the NSG," he said. India’s efforts to join the grouping suffered a setbackin June when the NSG plenary held in South Korea decidedagainst accepting its membership application after China andsome other nations opposed entry of a non-NPT signatory. "The two leaders discussed defence and securitycooperation. In this context, both the sides positivelyaccessed the recent Naval exercises held between the two sidesand agreed to remain in touch," Swaup said after their talks. "The issue of terrorism was also discussed during themeeting and Prime Minister Modi said that it is important forall the democratic forces to come together to counter thischallenge," the spokesperson said. Swarup said the Prime Minister told Turnbull that India’sneighbourhood, in particular, is suffering from thedestabilising effects of terrorism. "Even Russia, China, Afghanistan were all facingterrorism threat emanating from our region and it wasimportant for us to identify the suppliers, exporters andfinanciers of terrorism. Otherwise, the world is going to facea huge challenge in coming weeks and months," Modi said,apparently referring to Pakistan from where terror groups suchas Haqqani network, Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Taliban operates. "Prime Minister Modi’s overall message was that we need aunified approach on countering terrorism," Swarup said. Modi said India-Australia relations are full of energyand the implementation of the mutually agreed projects andprogrammes have been considerably speeded up under Turnbull’sguidance. The two leaders also discussed the possibilities of tradeand investment ties between India and Australia. In the context of trade, both the sides felt that muchmore can be done and if the comprehensive economic cooperationagreements between Australia and India could be speeded upthat would certainly provide much more momentum to their ties. Modi also sought the support of Turnbull in encouragingthe Australian pension funds to invest in India. He alsosought Turnbull’s support for clean coal technology. "Because of India’s clean energy targets, it is importantfor us to adopt as much clean coal technology as possible andthis is an area in which Australia has proven expertise.Whether it is underground mining or other form of mining,Australian companies can provide us those technologies," headded. PTI SAI ZH AKJZH