Sawt Falasteen - Modi visits Australia for minerals talks and rockstar welcome

Modi is set to receive a rockstar welcome at a community rally held inside a Melbourne stadium on Thursday, with organisers anticipating more than 20,000 people could flock to the event.

India and Australia have grown considerably closer in recent years, a relationship partly driven by a joint desire to keep Beijing's military ambitions in check while cultivating trading partners outside China.

"It's historically been quite a difficult relationship, given India and Australia's differing positions during the Cold War," said Teesta Prakash from the Australia India Institute.

"But now we are in a starkly different strategic environment."

Securing a reliable uranium pipeline is expected to be a key topic of discussion when Modi sits down with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on Thursday.

Energy-hungry India -- the world's most populous country with 1.4 billion people -- has plans to drastically expand its nuclear power capacity.

And mining giant Australia is estimated to hold as much as 28 percent of the world's uranium resource, according to the World Nuclear Association.

India and Australia entered a nuclear cooperation agreement in 2015 that paved the way for uranium exports, but legal hurdles remain and trade today is largely non-existent.

"Uranium has always been a hot topic between Australia and India," said Prakash.

"Historically, India has been asking to have Australia ship it to India. But is Australia willing to do that?"

- 'The Boss' -

With ambitions of cornering the electric vehicle market, India is also on the lookout for critical minerals such as lithium -- another resource Australia has in abundance.

Australia, India, the United States and Japan are members of the Quad, a group seen as a counterweight to China in the Asia-Pacific region.

But with the United States seemingly less interested in the alliance, New Delhi and Canberra have shown an increasing willingness to work one-to-one on matters of defence.

Modi drew 20,000 people to a community rally during his last trip to Sydney in 2023.

Albanese took to the stage at that event to declare "Modi is the Boss", quipping that his crowd-pulling power eclipsed even that of US rock icon Bruce Springsteen.

Organisers have said that even bigger crowds are expected at the "Melbourne meets Modi" event hosted at the city's Marvel Stadium.

Modi's visit is also expected to stir up opposition.

Australia's Alliance Against Islamophobia said it would protest outside the stadium event, drawing attention to what it said was the persecution of minority groups in India.

A separate protest against Indian migration to Australia is also planned.

Modi is scheduled to fly to New Zealand after Australia.

K.Hassan--SF-PST