Scholars can improve Indo-Australian relations

Updated on: Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Deputy High Commissioner of Australia in India, Lachlan Strahan has opined that interaction between Indian and Australian scholars will further improve the Indo-Australian economic and cultural ties that were picking up rapidly since the last few years.

Though the relations between the two countries underwent some turbulence owing to various factors, India and Australia have realised the need for more co-operation, and the visit of scholars will help in understanding each other better, he said. He was speaking at a conference on “Vanishing Borders in the Age of Globalism: Austral-Asian Perspectives” organised by the Osmania University Centre for International Programmes (OUCIP) in collaboration with Association for the Study of Australasia in Asia (ASAA) at the OUCIP on Monday.

Mentioning the positive developments between the two countries, Dr. Strahan said India was the 4 largest export and 8 largest trading partner of Australia. India was also the largest bi-lateral science partner – five times higher than China. India made huge investments in Australian coalmines and the defence and strategic ties were increasing, he said. The decision to sell Uranium to India was a big boost to the ties. At the same time, he admitted that some mistakes did occur in the higher education sector leading to some unpleasant incidents that caught international attention.

The three-day conference will discuss various aspects such as culture, fiction, socio-economic concerns, language and context, education, politics of the border in comparison to globalisation. Writers from various countries are participating in the conference.

The OU Vice-Chancellor, S. Satyanarayana inaugurated the conference. Nicholas Hasluck, novelist and former judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia delivered the keynote address.

Cynthia Vanden Driesen of ASAA explained the role of ASAA in promoting cross-cultural writings while Anjali Gera Roy introduced the theme of the conference. C. Vijayasree, director of Advanced Centre for American Studies and T. Vijay Kumar, Joint Director, OUCIP also spoke.

Scholars can improve Indo-Australian relations

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