India, Australia pitch for freedom of navigation in maritime areas

Against the backdrop of China's objections to any activity in South China Sea, India and Australia Wednesday pitched for freedom of navigation in maritime areas.

India and Australia discussed the prospects of holding a bilateral naval exercise, regional security issues and piracy at a meeting between Defence Minister AK Antony and his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith.

"Both sides agreed that challenges in the area of maritime security like piracy and freedom of navigation are important issues which required concerted efforts of the global community," Defence Ministry said in release.

However, the Defence Ministry, in its release, didn't mention any specific maritime area.

In the recent past, China had objected to any activity in South China Sea including Indian oil exploration activities there.

In the discussions, Antony stressed India was looking forward to develop exchanges with Australia at both bilateral level and in multi-lateral fora such as the ASEAN Defence Minister's Meeting Plus.

The Defence Ministry had recently made it clear that it was not keen on hopping on to any multilateral security constructs in the region excepting those under the UN flag or ADMM plus rejecting the suggestions of a trilateral security arrangement between India, Australia and the US.