A day after he landed in Melbourne, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday for the third annual summit, where they are expected to discuss cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, critical minerals and education partnership, among other areas.Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “PM Modi lands in Australia. PM @narendramodi arrived in Melbourne to a warm and special welcome.”He said that Modi will co-chair the summit with Albanese and engage with various stakeholders to further deepen the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership across all sectors of mutual interest.Also Read | India, Australia agree to advance maritime awareness activitiesModi posted on X, “Landed in Melbourne, Australia. This visit will add vigour to the India-Australia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership. I look forward to the talks with Prime Minister Albanese. I will also have the opportunity to interact with the Indian diaspora, which is an important pillar of our partnership.”This is the PM’s third visit to Australia; he is visiting Melbourne after a gap of 12 years.The geopolitically significant visit is expected to boost India’s MAHASAGAR (Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security and Growth Across Regions) and Indo-Pacific vision. “It will further cement ties between two QUAD partners who are playing greater roles in the Indo-Pacific, bringing new opportunities and prosperity for people and countries, especially the Small Island Developing States,” officials said.As a special gesture, in a rare departure from established protocols, Governor-General of Australia Sam Mostyn AC will travel to Melbourne to meet PM Modi, signifying the maturity of bilateral relations, officials said.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Beyond US and China, India and others are building a ‘G Minus Two’ for Indo-PacificThe visit is expected to give a boost to business ties and partnership in areas such as critical minerals and supply chain, as the PM will be addressing the CEOs forum. The 2026 India-Australia CEO Forum will continue to drive growing economic ties and support implementation of Australia-India collaboration in trade and investment across sectors, officials said.“The PM will be addressing a large community event. The Indian diaspora in Australia has become an important pillar of our bilateral relationship. Indian origin people now make up almost one million of all Australians, and the Indian diaspora is Australia’s fastest growing large diaspora community,” they added.Australia has emerged as a key partner under the New Education Policy, with Flinders University becoming the latest Australian University to receive approval for opening a campus in India. With this, eight Australian universities have been approved to set up campuses across India. Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 25 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting on foreign affairs for more than 17 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More