Australian PM Anthony Albanese calls G20 Summit 'successful,' clicks selfie with PM Modi

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has called the G20 Summit in India "successful" as he clicked selfies with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to New Delhi. Albanese stressed that the New Delhi Summit entailed a "good bilateral discussion" between the two leaders and focused on the key issues of the globe. The Australian Prime Minister took to his official X handle, formerly known as Twitter, to post the selfie with PM Modi. 

"A successful G20 meeting hosted by @narendramodi in New Delhi today followed by a good bilateral discussion about concluding the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between Australia and India," Albanese tweeted on Saturday. 

The Australian PM said that India and Australia concluded the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) at the G20 Summit. Both countries inked the bilateral Economic Cooperation Trade Agreement in April 2022. The pact came into effect on December 29, 2022. India is currently Australia’s sixth-largest trading partner with two-way trade in goods and services that were valued estimated $46.5 billion in 2022.

A successful G20 meeting hosted by @narendramodi in New Delhi today followed by a good bilateral discussion about concluding the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement between Australia and India 🇦🇺🇮🇳 pic.twitter.com/tglLOScrcJ

— Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) September 9, 2023

A shared ambition to conclude CECA

As economic ties between the two nations grew stronger, in 2021, Australia and India formally re-launched CECA negotiations with the intention to conclude an Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) swiftly in order to liberalise and deepen bilateral trade in goods and services. Over 85 per cent of Australian goods exports to India are tariff-free, and this is expected to rise to 90 per cent by 1 January 2026. Ahead of the G20 meeting, Albanese said in a statement that he aims to conclude the Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) by the end of the year.

"We reiterated our shared ambition for an early conclusion of the Australia-India comprehensive economic cooperation agreement later this year," Albanese had said. 

Last year, India and Australia finalised the Economic Cooperation Trade Agreement (ECTA). After holding a bilateral talk with his Australian counterpart, PM Modi tweeted that he talked about taking the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership to greater heights in the next decade.  "We [Anthony Albanese and PM Modi] discussed in detail the possibilities of cooperation in new areas. Last year India-Australia ECTA came into effect. Today we have decided to focus on CECA -- Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement," PM said.