INDIA IS IN THE CAMP OF DEMOCRACIES AGAINST AUTOCRACIES: EX-AUSTRALIA PM

Quad is the most important strategic development in the world since the creation of NATO, says former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

- MANISH CHAND

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott loves India and takes special pride in the country’s rising global stature, as telescoped in India’s G20 presidency. In this wide-ranging conversation, he says India’s G20 presidency will be welcomed universally and will help the country in advancing its unique initiatives like global skill mapping and give a voice to the Global South. Hailing the recent visit of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to India as a high moment in India-Australia relations, Mr Abbott describes the Quad as the “most important strategic development in the world since the creation of NATO.” PM Modi is expected to travel to Sydney to attend the next Quad summit, likely to take place in May.

Q: What are your views about India’s G20 presidency? What are the major issues on which Australia would be proactively supporting India?

A: As a former G20 President, the important thing about the G20 is to keep people talking about things where they have got more in common. When it comes to what the countries of the G20 have in common, we want better shared economic growth and better environments; we want to see orderly migration and so on.

So, what we’ll get from India as G20 President, is just a fundamental sense of decency. Firstly, because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a fundamentally decent man. Second, because India historically has been very benign. India dominates the subcontinent by the virtue of its size. But for such a large country, it has been remarkably benign in its foreign policy since 1947. While India today is economically and militarily stronger, and has grown in self-confidence, it certainly hasn’t lost those extremely benign policies that it takes to the wider world. India’s G20 presidency is something that will be universally welcomed.