India and Australia: the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, ECTA and the groupings they share

Country Focus Background Economy & Banking Polity & Governance

India and Australia: the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, ECTA and the groupings they share

Background

The High Commission of India in Canberra records that the India-Australia relationship was elevated to the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership (CSP) on June 4, 2020, during the first India-Australia Virtual Summit, and that the relationship is underpinned by shared values of pluralistic, Westminster-style democracies, Commonwealth traditions and expanding economic engagement, with sporting links, especially Cricket and Hockey, among the people-to-people ties.
Diplomatic contact predates Independence: an India Trade Office was established in Sydney in 1941, Australia's first High Commissioner to India was appointed in 1944 and India's first High Commissioner to Australia assumed charge in 1945.
On 2 April 2022 the India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) was signed, and it entered into force on 29 December 2022. Under ECTA, Australia gave India zero duty on 98.3 % tariff lines from December 29, 2022, with the remaining 113 tariff lines phasing out to zero duty in five years; India gave duty free access immediately on 40.3 percent tariff lines. Total bilateral trade in goods and services was AUD 50.21 billion in 2025, when India was Australia's fifth largest trading partner.
Education and diaspora are the human core of the relationship. The number of Indian students enrolled for study in Australia is 1,10,662 (as of May 2026), the second largest cohort of foreign students in Australia after China. As per the Australian Census 2021 the Indian diaspora in Australia is over 9,76,000 strong, about 3% of the total population, including 3,50,000 Indian passport holders.
India and Australia work together in regional and global fora including the Quad, the G20 and the East Asia Summit. Both are members of the Commonwealth, the Indian Ocean Rim Association and the ASEAN Regional Forum; Australia became an Observer in SAARC in 2008, joined the International Solar Alliance in December 2017 and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure as a founding member in September 2019.

Date the relationship was elevated to a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership: June 4, 2020 Date ECTA was signed and the date it entered into force: On 2 April 2022, India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) was signed, and subsequently entered into force on 29 December 2022 Tariff lines Australia opened at zero duty under ECTA: Zero Duty on 98.3 % tariff lines from December 29, 2022 Total bilateral trade in goods and services: AUD 50.21 billion in 2025 Indian students enrolled for study in Australia: 1,10,662 (as of May 2026) Size of the Indian diaspora in Australia: over 9,76,000 strong, which is about 3% of the total population

Why it matters for exams: Bilateral questions are set on the name of the partnership, the name and date of the trade agreement and the groupings both countries sit in, and ECTA with the Quad is the pairing that comes up most often for Australia.

Kerala PSCUPSC

2 October 2026 Source: High Commission of India, Canberra Updated 5 November 2026

In plain words

ECTA India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement — The trade agreement under which each country opened a large share of its tariff lines to the other's goods.

Tariff line tariff line — A single entry in a country's customs schedule, naming one category of goods and the duty on it.