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India and Australia on Friday agreed to initiate a security dialogue to capitalise on the vast potential for building close ties between the two stable and liberal democracies in the Asia-Pacific region.
This was decided during a meeting between visiting External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh and his Australian counterpart Alexander Downer in Adelaide.
"We have set India-Australia relations on a course of greater co-operation and friendship," Singh told mediapersons.
Official sources said that the dialogue is expected to take place in New Delhi in August this year.
During the talks with Jaswant Singh, Downer said, "The relationship has been too thin and too remote for too long. We have a vast potential in terms of building a close and dynamic relationship as two very stable liberal democracies in the Asia-Pacific region."
Welcoming India's ongoing economic reforms, Downer said Australia would like 'more breadth and depth with India'.
On the issue of nuclear weapons and disarmament, Singh said, "India is non-aggressive in ideology and intent and there are great many elements that bring India and Australia together."
Justifying Australia's action against India following the Pokhran nuclear tests, Downer said, "We responded exactly that way to the French nuclear tests in 1995-96."
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