New Delhi (NVI): Senior officials from India, France and Australia met today and held a dialogue on the next steps to be taken for furthering trilateral cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.
The three sides took stock of the progress made on the outcomes of the Foreign Secretary level Trilateral Dialogue held in September 2020, including Maritime Security, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), Blue Economy, Protection of Marine Global Commons, Combatting Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) Fishing and Cooperation in Multilateral Fora, the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
The Indian side was led by Sandeep Chakravorty, Joint Secretary (Europe West) while the French side was led by Bertrand Lortholary, Director (Asia and Oceania) and the Australian side was led by Gary Cowan, First Assistant Secretary (North and South Asia Division) and John Geering, First Assistant Secretary (Europe and Latin America Division), MEA said.
On September 9 last year, the three nations held talks for the first time under a trilateral framework with focus on enhancing cooperation in the Indo-Pacific.
Pertinent to mention here that the Indo-Pacific region has been witnessing increasing Chinese military assertiveness. The QUAD group of nations– India, Australia, Japan and US — have also been galvanising efforts recently to tackle China in the region and counter its aggressive posturing.
-ARK
