SINGAPORE: India and Australia have "agreed to develop maritime cooperation and exchanges that enhance mutual capacity" for ensuring "security" along the Indian Ocean.

Outlining the accord, Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson told The Hindu here on Monday that the focus was "to further support" New Delhi's "policing of the Indian Ocean."

`Significant determinants'

Dr. Nelson indicated that the understanding was reached during his discussions with Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee on the sidelines of the Asia Security Summit, which concluded here on Sunday.

The summit was organised by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Emphasising New Delhi's centrality to Canberra's current foreign and defence policies, Dr. Nelson said: "I think, from our point of view in Australia, China and India are going to be significant determinants of our place in the region for the foreseeable future."

He was citing the Asia-Pacific region.

At present, Australia's defence relationship with India was still "relatively underdeveloped," in contrast to the fact that they "have enjoyed shared history in many ways, particularly in cricket and democracy and so on."

Naval `core group'

Recognising this, Australia and India now "made a conscious decision to focus on areas of cooperation, where there is a practical need and an outcome that benefits both" in the defence domain.

Asked whether India and Australia as also the United States and Japan, which formed a naval "core group" for tsunami relief some time ago, were now moving towards evolving a more concrete mechanism for military cooperation among themselves, he said "we have not progressed that any further at the moment."

Tracing Australia's position, Dr. Nelson said:

"Our approach is to have very strong, cooperative, bilateral relations with countries. So, obviously, Japan, the United States, [and] if any, India are good examples of that. Increasingly also, Indonesia, notwithstanding the recent hiccups in that regard."

He was referring to the recent strains in Australia's ties with Indonesia.

Not party to discussion

"We are not party to any formal discussion" on the possibility of the U.S. and Australia joining India and Japan for joint military cooperation. More emphatically, he said "we have not considered ... some sort of formal arrangement on a multilateral basis among the four countries."

He hinted, too, that an arrangement of this magnitude was not likely to be considered at this stage.

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