Consulate General of India

Hon Deputy Premier Rita Saffioti
Hon Leader of the Opposition Basil Zempilas
Senator Varun Ghosh
Senator Dean Smith
Mr Matt Keogh MP
Mr Sam Lim MP
Mr Sam Hort MLA
Mr Yaz Mubarakai MLA
Dr Jagdish Krishnan MLA
Members and office holders of the Indian Society of Western Australia
And today’s artists, performers and audience,

Kaya, Namaskar, Sat sri akal, salam alaikum, and a very good evening.

At the very beginning I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land that we stand on today and pay my respects to the elders past, present and emerging.

I thank ISWA for inviting me and my family to join you in your annual cultural extravaganza Sangam. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate ISWA and the Indian community for your journey this far in this wonderful country and thank the people of Western Australia for welcoming us to find a home at the far end of the Indian Ocean.

As Comprehensive Strategic Partners and members of the Quad grouping, the range and depth of the India Australia relationship is reflected in the agreements, joint initiatives and bilateral engagement mechanisms ranging from the India-Australia Annual Summit, Audio-visual Co-production Agreement, India-Australia Solar Taskforce, Migration and Mobility Partnership Arrangement, Taskforce on Green Hydrogen, Centre for Australia-India Relations in Parramatta, Sydney, India-Australia Renewable Energy Partnership , 2+2 Foreign and Defence Ministerial Dialogue, Foreign Ministers’ Framework Dialogue, India-Australia Strategic Research Fund , and joint military exercises both bilateral and regional.Since May 2022 there have been nineteen Ministerial level visits from India, and another staggering 33 high level visits from Australia to India.The landmarkIndia-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement ("IndAUS ECTA”) has been followed by 11 rounds of negotiations on India-Australia Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) till date. On 26 February 2025 Australia launched “A New Roadmap for Australia's Economic Engagement with India” to bolster economic ties between the two countries.

The Indian diaspora has rightly been called the “living bridge” in this relationship by the Minister of Trade and Tourism Senator Hon Don Farrell. You continue to lead the people-to-people and economic engagement between the two countries. Your role in intensifying the cooperation between India and Australia in the areas of education, skill development, technology, clean energy and green transition, agribusiness, healthcare, cybersecurity and digital governance, continues to be of great significance. Your experience and understanding of both societies are a vital source of information in shaping policies. It is thus no surprise that the writing of the first comprehensive India Economic Strategy to 2035 was entrusted to Peter Varghese, the former Secretary, DFAT and an illustrious member of the Indian origin community in Australia.

At ISWA you not only bring together the best that the community has to offer as professionals and experts in your fields of work, you also give expression to Indian culture and heritage in all its diversity and richness. The many stories of the tireless efforts by the members of ISWA in reaching out to people in need warms the heart and is a rallying point for everyone in the community and beyond.

The arts are an expression of the dreams and emotions of all people, and while the realities of individual lives are as many as the lives themselves, it is these dreams and emotions that bind all of us together in a complex web of humanity. If our emotions make us imperfect irrational beings, it is those very emotions that make us strong and brave the greatest odds, as they teach us to dream of the impossible. Thus, stories from strange lands and songs sung in strange tongues will touch every heart as they celebrate the triumph of the human spirit.

We are here today to celebrate that dream of a brave new world at the end of the travelers’ road.