Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, 9 July 2026 shared that he met Scott Morrison, former Prime Minister of Australia, for a conversation centred on the India-Australia friendship. Modi posted on X that it was 'always good to catch up' with Morrison, signalling the warmth of personal ties that have outlasted Morrison's time in office.

Context

The meeting between Modi and Morrison underscores that the India-Australia relationship has matured well beyond transactional diplomacy. Morrison, who served as Australian Prime Minister from 2018 to 2022, was a key architect of the current bilateral architecture during his tenure, engaging closely with India on trade, defence, and Indo-Pacific security.

The two leaders worked together through multiple high-level formats, including the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) — the strategic grouping of India, Australia, the United States, and Japan — and a landmark bilateral virtual summit in June 2020 that elevated ties to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

Policy Backdrop

The institutional scaffolding of the India-Australia relationship was substantially built during the Modi-Morrison era. In April 2022, the two countries signed the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), designed to reduce tariffs and expand bilateral merchandise trade — a milestone that had eluded the two nations for over a decade of negotiations.

Defence cooperation also deepened through joint exercises and logistics-access arrangements, while the Indian diaspora in Australia — one of the fastest-growing migrant communities — became an increasingly prominent people-to-people bridge. These foundations have continued to hold under Morrison's successors in Canberra.

Stakeholders and Impact

The continued engagement between Modi and Morrison sends a signal to bilateral traders, defence establishments, and the Indian community in Australia that the personal relationships underpinning the partnership remain active. Institutionalised ties of this depth typically survive changes of government on either side, and informal leader-to-leader contact reinforces that continuity.

For the Quad framework, such interactions also carry symbolic weight: they demonstrate that the Indo-Pacific security architecture is not solely a function of who holds office, but reflects a durable strategic convergence between New Delhi and Canberra.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the next Quad Leaders' Summit and any scheduled review of ECTA tariff concessions, both of which will test the durability of the frameworks that Modi and Morrison helped build. Bilateral ministerial meetings and defence white-paper updates from Australia are also expected to shape the near-term trajectory of the partnership. The informal nature of this meeting suggests the two leaders continue to consult on the strategic direction of the relationship even outside official channels.