Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Peter Dutton arrived here on Friday afternoon for the much-anticipated inaugural India-Australia ‘2+2’ ministerial dialogue to be held tomorrow.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will lead the Indian delegation at the dialogue at which the two countries will discuss a range of bilateral issues as well as global developments, particularly the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban and the situation in the Indo-Pacific region.

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Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Arindam Bagchi described the upcoming dialogue as a ”milestone” in the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries.

The agenda for the dialogue will cover a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. In the emerging geopolitical scenario, India and Australia are fast emerging to be natural partners. Both these countries, along with the US and Japan, are members of the Quad. This format was formalised at the Philippines capital, Manila, in November 2017.

Concerned over the growing Chinese assertiveness on high seas, the two countries are expected to devote considerable time to finding ways to ensure freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific. They will focus on ramping up defence ties between them.

Earlier this week, addressing a virtual conference, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said, “The embedding of India in ASEAN-led structures helped create a regular and comfortable interface with others present, including Australia.”

He has also said that the two-way Prime Ministerial visits of Abbott and Narendra Modi in 2014 had opened the “gates for cooperation just waiting to happen.”

The two countries have been cooperating on a wide range of issues, including maritime collaboration, defence science exchanges, and mutual logistics support to cooperation in cyber-enabled critical technology, critical and strategic materials, water resources management and vocational education and training.

Both India and Australia, along with Japan and the US, are also part of the ‘Quad’, a grouping with China that has been uncomfortable.

The India-Australia ‘2+2’ ministerial dialogue was instituted as part of an overall goal to expand strategic cooperation between the two countries. India has such a framework for talks with a very few countries, including the US and Japan.