Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Australia this week moved the India-Australia partnership into a more strategic phase, with uranium exports, critical minerals, maritime security, defense cooperation and technology supply chains forming the core of a wide-ranging set of agreements signed in Melbourne.

The most consequential outcome was the finalization of administrative arrangements that will allow Australia to export uranium to India for peaceful civil nuclear use under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards.

The arrangement gives practical effect to the civil nuclear cooperation agreement signed in 2014 and brought into force in 2015. It also ends a long delay in nuclear trade between a country with some of the world’s largest known uranium resources and an economy trying to build a much larger nuclear power fleet.

The deal carries political weight beyond energy. Australia had long resisted uranium exports to countries outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). India is not a signatory to the NPT, making the arrangement diplomatically sensitive even though the fuel will be used under international safeguards for civilian purposes.

For India, the uranium arrangement sits inside a broader energy-security calculation. New Delhi has set a target of 100 gigawatts (GW) of nuclear energy capacity by 2047, while also pursuing 500 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2030 and net zero by 2070. Nuclear power currently accounts for only a small share of India’s electricity generation, which gives the target both scale and urgency.

Modi told Australian business leaders that Australia’s technology, capital and resources could accelerate India’s energy transition, and described nuclear energy cooperation as a “historic opportunity.”

For Australia, the deal offers a new market for its resources sector at a time when Canberra is trying to diversify economic exposure beyond China. No details were immediately available on the volume, value or timing of uranium exports.

Uranium opens the minerals lane

The uranium arrangement was accompanied by a Joint Statement on Energy Security, which framed energy as both a climate and supply-chain issue. The statement committed the two countries to stable and reliable flows of coal, diesel, other liquid fuels and natural gas, while also expanding cooperation in renewables, electrification and low-carbon fuels.

While India’s energy transition cannot be separated from its near-term dependence on conventional fuels, Australia is positioning itself as a supplier not only of fossil fuels and uranium, but also of inputs for the next generation of clean-energy and industrial systems.

Critical minerals formed the second major pillar of the visit. The leaders reaffirmed cooperation to promote investment, secure long-term supply and offtake arrangements, and support processing and value addition.

Australia also announced a refreshed memorandum of understanding between Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of India for scientific exchanges in resource mapping and mineral exploration.

Modi said the two countries would work on a critical minerals corridor. India needs lithium, cobalt, nickel, rare earths and other inputs for batteries, electric mobility, clean energy, electronics and defense manufacturing. Australia has reserves, mining capability and an interest in moving further up the value chain.

The corridor idea gives both sides a way to connect Australian resources with Indian processing, manufacturing and demand.

Security partnership sharpens at sea

Defense was another central pillar. Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced a Joint Declaration on Defense and Security Cooperation, describing defense and security as a cornerstone of the partnership.

The declaration commits the two sides to consult on Indo-Pacific defense developments, increase the complexity of exercises, expand aircraft deployments from each other’s territories, deepen interoperability and strengthen information sharing.

Albanese called India a “top-tier security partner” for Australia, according to ABC News. The phrase captures a larger shift in Canberra’s view of India: from a large economic partner and diaspora link to a core security actor in the Indo-Pacific.

The two countries also agreed to enhance maritime cooperation through an India-Australia Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap. The roadmap covers information sharing, capability development, capacity building and operational coordination. The leaders also welcomed a memorandum of understanding between Australia’s Maritime Border Command and the Indian Coast Guard.

India and Australia are both Indian Ocean powers. Their shipping lanes, energy imports, undersea cable routes and naval concerns increasingly overlap. That has made maritime security one of the most practical areas of cooperation, especially as both countries seek to keep sea lanes open and reduce vulnerability to coercion or disruption.

The joint statement did not name China. But its language on a rules-based Indo-Pacific, freedom of navigation and overflight, peaceful resolution of disputes and opposition to unilateral changes to the status quo closely tracks concerns that have shaped regional security debates.

Tech ties get a security edge

Technology and supply-chain security were pulled into the same strategic frame.

The new Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains, or PACTS, replaces the 2020 cyber and critical technology framework. It will work across five pillars: supply-chain resilience, critical technology, cybersecurity, digital resilience and defense research collaboration.

The framework covers areas including trusted vendors, undersea cables, semiconductor supply chains, AI standards, compute access, cybersecurity, digital public infrastructure and defense research.

The summit also welcomed the Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation Partnership MoU, or ACITI, for cooperation in critical and emerging technologies.

The trilateral format matters as India and Australia are not only building a bilateral relationship. They are placing it inside a wider network of technology partnerships with other democracies. The shared focus is resilience: fewer single points of failure, more trusted technology links, and supply chains that are less exposed to geopolitical pressure.

On trade, the leaders praised the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement, which came into force in 2022, and reaffirmed their commitment to a more ambitious Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement.

The existing relationship is already substantial. India is Australia’s fifth-largest trading partner, with bilateral trade of A$54.4 billion in 2024–25. Modi told business leaders that ECTA had strengthened the economic partnership and said Indian exports to Australia had doubled after the agreement.

But the summit did not deliver a breakthrough on CECA. The next phase of negotiations involves more sensitive market-access questions, including agriculture, services, investment and regulatory barriers.

AustralianSuper, Australia’s largest pension fund, announced an additional A$500 million investment in India’s National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. Modi welcomed the decision as a sign of confidence in India’s growth and reform story. The investment would take AustralianSuper’s overall India holdings close to A$3.3 billion.

At the business reception, Modi highlighted India’s road, rail, port, airport and urban infrastructure buildout, and said Australian pension funds, which manage more than $4 trillion, could find “safe, stable and sustainable growth” in India.

Students, skills and soft power

Education and skills remained central to the visit, partly because the Indian diaspora and student flows are among the strongest anchors in the relationship.

The joint statement said the Indian community is now Australia’s largest overseas-born group. It also welcomed the University Grants Commission’s Letter of Intent for Flinders University to establish a campus in Bengaluru, a Letter of Approval for Victoria University to operate in Gurugram, and an agreement involving Western Australia and India to support a National Centre of Excellence for Skilling in Mining in Bhubaneswar.

The education push goes beyond soft power. For Australia, Indian students are a major part of the higher-education economy. For India, foreign university campuses and mining-skills partnerships connect to a larger agenda: preparing workers for manufacturing, resources, clean energy and advanced services.

The two sides also announced an India-Australia Sports Collaboration Roadmap, linking cooperation in sport to trade, tourism and investment. The timing gives the move a clear sporting context. Australia is preparing for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics, while India is set to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games in Ahmedabad.

There were outcomes on cultural and people-to-people ties as well. Australia announced A$10 million for the Centre for Australia-India Relations’ Maitri grants. The joint statement also noted progress on the repatriation of a First Nations ancestor held in India, and the return to India of cultural artifacts held in Australian collecting institutions.

The visit, however, was not free of political tension. ABC News reported that protesters had planned demonstrations over human rights concerns, including criticism from some diaspora groups and Amnesty International.

Reuters reported a heavy police presence outside the Melbourne venue for Modi’s diaspora event, where a small group of far-right protesters shouted anti-immigration slogans but were heavily outnumbered by supporters waving Indian flags.