India and Australia on Thursday committed to accelerating their defence and security partnership, which subtly announced a renewed determination to counter Chinese hegemony in the region.The two sides made a ‘Joint Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation’, promising to work together on maritime security, defence industry collaboration, information sharing, terrorism and enhancing deployments of planes in each other’s territories. The declaration was made after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Melbourne on Thursday.India and Australia agreed to ‘evolve’ their partnership to meet changing strategic circumstances. “We commit to an acceleration in our advanced, integrated and top-tier defence and security partnership,” the declaration said. “It’s a long-term vision of defence and security collaboration to enhance collective strength. This collaboration will make an important contribution to regional peace and security,” it added.Focusing on China, the two sides — partners in the Quad — said the declaration was based on the ‘determination’ to “strengthen their partnership and motivated by a common ambition for an open, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific”.In strategic circles, the phrase ‘open, peaceful, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific’ is a euphemism for opposing Chinese hegemony and attempts to impede traffic at sea and in air.The two countries batted for rules-based architecture based on adherence to international law along with respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity. The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is cited in the ‘declaration’. Under the same law, China has lost its case over demarcation of the maritime boundaries of the South China Sea.On their bilateral defence cooperation, India and Australia committed to strengthening their ‘comprehensive strategic partnership’. This will include consultation on defence-related developments in the Indo-Pacific that affect shared interests. The areas of cooperation include enhancing the complexity of military exercises, accelerating interoperability and information sharing between defence forces, expanding aircraft deployments from each other’s territories, deepening defence personnel exchanges, education and training, and exploring opportunities to recruit skilled defence workforces.The two sides aim to encourage industry engagement to deepen collaboration between their defence innovation ecosystems and develop arrangements for advanced defence science and technology collaboration.The two sides also committed to increasing information sharing on terrorist threats in the region, including entities and individuals, and exploring opportunities for enhanced collaboration to counter extremism and terrorism.On the cooperation in the Quad – where the US and Japan are partners – the declaration said, “We will expand our cooperation”. This will be for building capability and cooperation towards an open, stable, peaceful and prosperous Indo-Pacific region, the two sides said.