MELBOURNE, 8 October, 2025: India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is set to visit Australia on October 9-10, 2025, to deepen defence cooperation and commemorate five years of their Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. This two-day official visit is at the invitation of the Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles.
It marks the first Indian Defence Minister’s visit to Australia since 2013 and the first under the Modi government. The agenda includes bilateral discussions, a defence business roundtable, meetings with other national leaders, and operational demonstrations intended to highlight interoperability between the forces.
The Indian Defence Minister’s visit comes at a time when Australia saw massive anti-immigration rallies, with their prominent flyer pointing the rising migration from India. The Indian Diaspora (population) in Australia, reports say, is about more than 900,000 plus, and constitutes 3 per cent plus in the total population. Whether the concerns of the Indian Diaspora on this issue come up during the Indian Defence Minister’s visit, remains to be seen.
Though the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade says, the Indian community in Australia continues to grow and contribute significantly to the nation’s social, economic, and cultural landscape, and is projected to remain a key part of Australia’s multicultural fabric in the coming decades.
A media release emailed to South Asia Times (SAT) by the Indian High Commission in Canberra on 6 Oct., 2025, says, ” The key highlight of Raksha Mantri’s (Defence Minister’s) visit will be the bilateral discussions with his Australian counterpart. He will chair a business roundtable in Sydney, which will be attended by industry leaders from both sides. He will also call on other national leaders of Australia. The visit will provide an important opportunity for both sides to explore new & meaningful initiatives to further strengthen the bilateral relationship and the defence partnership.”
” During the visit, three agreements are planned to be signed, which will further enhance cooperation in the areas of information sharing, the maritime domain, and joint activities. Defence engagements have expanded over time to include wide-ranging interactions between the services, military-to-military exchanges, high-level visits, capacity-building and training programmes, cooperation in the maritime domain, ship visits, and bilateral exercises.”
Indian Defence News adds: “One of the key highlights of the visit is a demonstration involving an Australian KC-30A multi-role tanker transport aircraft performing an air-to-air refuelling mission with an Indian combat aircraft. This follows the air-to-air refuelling implementing arrangement signed in November 2024, which extends the operational range of Indian military aircraft in the Indian Ocean region, a strategically critical area for both countries.”
Media reports indicate three major defence agreements are likely to be signed: Enhanced protocols for information and intelligence sharing, focusing on data exchange in the maritime domain, submarine rescue arrangement, joint responses to undersea threats and joint staff talks, for closer military-to-military coordination and pave the way for expanded training, exercises, and operational synergy.
