Australia wants to engage more with South Asia

By Neena Bhandari
Sydney, Aug 5 (IANS) Australia, which has been invited as an observer to the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), has welcomed the Colombo summit’s declaration calling for international cooperation in the fight against terrorism. “Australia enjoys strong defence and counter-terrorism links with South Asia.
With 280,000 people migrating permanently to Australia from SAARC countries and nearly 93,000 South Asian students enrolled in Australian educational institutions last year, people-to-people links between Australia and SAARC member countries have been growing.

Indians have become the second largest group of skilled migrants arriving in Australia under the temporary skilled migration programme during 2007-2008. India is also Australia’s second largest source of overseas students after China, with more than 52,000 Indian students currently enrolled in educational institutions Down Under.

Australia’s merchandise and services trade with SAARC countries - India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives and Nepal - was over Australian $13 billion ($12 billion) in 2007 and institutional links in key areas such as education, science and technology, and policy dialogues have also been growing.