India and Australia today decided to bolster defence ties, acknowledging the critical importance of maritime security and freedom of navigation for the growth and prosperity of Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean regions.

Defence Minister A K Antony, who is on a historic visit to Australia, today met his counterpart Stephen Smith in Canberra and held wide-ranging talks on shared strategic and security
interests, including maritime security and defence ties.

According to a joint statement issued after the meeting, the two leaders exchanged ideas concerning regional and international security as well as defence cooperation and exchanges between the two sides.

They agreed to continue ongoing bilateral Naval exchanges to build confidence and familiarity between the their Navies and work towards a bilateral maritime exercise in 2015.

During the meeting, the two ministers took a note of the progress made in defence cooperation and agreed that interactions held between the defence establishments of both sides in a variety of fields and at various levels have been mutually beneficial.

India also accepted Australia's invitation for Indian naval ship participation in the International Fleet Review to be held in Sydney in October 2013.

Antony's visits comes days after Australian government released a defence white paper which outlines the profound strategic changes occurring as economic, strategic and military weight shift to the Indo-Pacific region.