Australia is stepping up military co-operation with India in a bid to give a four-way partnership with Japan and the US “teeth”, in what sources say is a play to keep Washington engaged amid concerns over China’s growing military might.

Anthony Albanese and his Indian counterpart on Thursday agreed to deepen defence ties in pursuit of “an open, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific”.

The agreement pledged both countries “to consult on defence related developments in the Indo-Pacific that affect shared interests”, mirroring a similar pact with Japan, as first reported by NewsWire.

“In an increasingly challenging global environment, our defence and security co-operation is a force for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” the Prime Minister said.

“The Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation demonstrates our growing strategic alignment and articulates our shared vision for the region.”

The talks came just days after China fired a nuclear capable missile into the South Pacific.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not reference the widely condemned missile test but said he and Mr Albanese “held detailed discussions on several regional issues”.

“We also believe that the tensions and wars across various parts of the world can only be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy,” Mr Modi said.

“In the entire Indo-Pacific region, we will together bring peace, stability, freedom of navigation, and a rules-based order,” he said.

Push to give Quad ‘teeth’

Both Australia and India, alongside Japan and the US, are members of the Quad – a strategic partnership to check China’s power, as former US president Joe Biden was caught on a hot mic admitting at its last leader level summit in 2024.

Mr Biden said at the time Chinese President Xi Jinping was “looking to buy himself some diplomatic space … to aggressively pursue China’s interest”.

“China continues to behave aggressively, testing us all across the region, and it’s true in the South China Sea, the East China Sea … South Asia and the Taiwan Straits,” he told Mr Albanese and the prime ministers of India and Japan.

“It’s true across the scope of our relationship, including on economic and technology issues.”

Mr Biden’s successor, Donald Trump, has not seen the same value in the Quad, with his chief diplomat Marco Rubio relaying to counterparts last year that the forum needed to evolve to become a “vehicle for action”.

Mr Rubio’s call to turn “ideas and concepts into … concrete actions” is what underpins efforts from Australia, Japan and India to strengthen military ties, according to government sources from all three countries.

The outcomes from Mr Albanese’s meeting with Mr Modi mirrored the Joint Statement on Enhanced Defence and Security Co-operation agreed with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in May, which focused on “strengthening capability, deepening integration and bolstering interoperability”.

Mr Modi has himself recently secured high-level agreements with Japan.

Ahead of the announcement, an Australian source unauthorised to speak publicly said defence ties with both India and Australia had developed “naturally” but that efforts had intensified over the past two years to, in part, show the Trump administration that the Quad “can grow teeth”.

Meanwhile, Indian and Japanese diplomatic sources were hopeful meaningful military engagement could be enough to interest Mr Trump in a leader level summit.

The Indian government has been cautious to comment on China’s latest military flex but New Delhi’s economic engagements in East Asia and the broader Indo-Pacific mean it has skin in the game.

Nathan Attrill, a China expert at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told NewsWire the launch was “designed not just to demonstrate capability, but to test how Indo-Pacific countries respond to China’s growing military reach”.

“Beijing is signalling that in any future Taiwan crisis, it can project power far beyond the Taiwan Strait and impose strategic pressure across the wider region,” he said.

A nuclear power, India is well placed militarily and economically to counter China.

It shares a massive border and has easy access to the Strait of Malacca – the chokepoint through which 80 per cent of China’s oil transits.

‘Living bridge’

Pockets of protesters appeared in Melbourne’s CBD on Thursday as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off a packed two-day schedule, with street closures forcing tramloads of Melburnians to get off stops early to walk into the CBD.

Among those protesting Mr Modi’s visit were shouting Sikh separatists waving Khalistani flags in support of the breakaway movement in India’s Punjab region.

The Australian Federal Police said it was prepared for further Khalistani protesters as well as Muslim protesters around Mr Modi’s events.

Mr Albanese began the event, organised by the Centre for Australia-India Relations, by describing Mr Modi as a “living bridge between our nations”.

The Business Council of Australia will take a trade delegation to India later this year during Australia Week, Mr Albanese said.

Mr Albanese said during his first trip to India as prime minister, Deakin University became the first foreign university to have a campus in India and noted that there were now eight branch campuses operating or approved.

Mr Albanese said every time he visited India, first as a backpacker in 1991 and later as prime minister “in slightly better hotels”, he was welcomed with glowing hospitality.

He pointed to Indian-born Australians now representing the largest overseas born contingent of citizens, as another thread to the link between the countries.

“That’s why Australia multiculturalism is not a theory, not something up for debate, it just is.”