Foreign diplomatic relations between Australia and India are well-established, with both nations sharing a "Comprehensive Strategic Partnership" since both were part of the British Empire.

[5] An early ship built in India from Calcutta, the newly renamed Sydney Cove was marooned, with its cargo of rum, off Tasmania, and the crew (including 12 Indian lascars) made a journey in 1796 CE, initially rowing a long boat, and then a long trek from Tasmania to Sydney, with only one Indian and two British sailors surviving.

In the early colonies, Indians were brought to Australia as labourers and domestic workers, with migration being curtailed after federation.

[13] In December 1939, the Menzies government appointed Roy Gollan as Australia's first official trade representative in India, based in Calcutta.

[15] After World War II, the Australian government of Ben Chifley supported the independence of India from the British Empire to act as a frontier against communism.

[27] In early 2018, the Australian government announced that a Consulate-General in Kolkata would be established particularly to encourage business with India's growing mining sector.

[30] The Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing, a botched attempt to allegedly assassinate the Indian prime minister at a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1978 received significant attention at the time.

Australian PM Scott Morrison was scheduled to visit New Delhi in January 2020, but had postponed it due to the bush fires in Australia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has held his first virtual bilateral summit on 4 June, as he hopes to expand the strategic partnership with Australia in the backdrop of China's renewed efforts to step up aggression in the Indo-Pacific region.

The summit is happening also amid new tensions between China and Australia over Canberra's call for a global inquiry into the origin of COVID-19.

[33] Prime Minister Scott Morrison also made "ScoMosas" and in their virtual summit, they even held talks for strengthening their military alliance.

The artifacts date back to various time periods, and primarily include sculptures and paintings composed of sandstone, marble, bronze, brass and paper.

Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia and India's $20 billion two-way trade was "a fraction of what we should aspire to, given the many points of intersection between our economies".

[42] In the year 2015-16, the total value of trade between Australia and India was A$19.4 billion, a significant increase over the preceding decade.

[51] Every two years, Australia and India also conduct a joint naval exercise in the Indian Ocean, called AUSINDEX.

[53] In recent times, India and Australia conducted a joint naval exercise, termed Malabar 2007, in the Indian Ocean alongside the US and Japan.

[55] Prime Ministers Abbott and Modi signed a landmark deal to increase their nations defence relationship in November 2014.

Part of the framework for security co-operation includes annual Prime Ministerial meetings and joint maritime exercises.

[56] Prime Minister Modi stated in an address to the Australian parliament that "This is a natural partnership emerging from our shared values and interests and strategic maritime locations...Security and defence are important and growing areas of the new India-Australia partnership for advancing regional peace and stability and combating terrorism and transnational crimes.

[58] The agreement was reached over a virtual summit between Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Australia won 4–0 and as a result, the Australian Board of Control did not invite the Indians back for two decades, fearing that a series of one-sided contests would lead to financial losses due to lack of spectator interest.

However, with the financial rise of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, Australia, the country with the most successful playing record in the world, has sought more regular fixtures.

The match, which ended in a last-minute Australian victory, was marred by a series of umpiring controversies, and belligerent conduct between some of the players.

At the end of the match, Harbhajan Singh was charged with racially abusing Andrew Symonds, who had been subjected to monkey chants by Indian crowds on a tour a few months earlier.

Harbhajan was initially found guilty and given a ban,[65] and the Board of Control for Cricket in India threatened to cancel the tour.

The thing I said before the first Test [about being mates with Australia], that has certainly changed and you won’t hear me say that ever again.”[66] However cricket, and more recently Indian Premier League has been considered "the lifeblood of the Australia-India relationship",[60] and Australian cricketers like David Warner, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee are immensely popular among the Indian people.

However privileges of OCI holders depends on the Government policy of the day, and there have been instances where they have been denied additional rights afforded to full Indian citizens, such as during the 2016 Indian banknote demonetisation where non-citizens, including OCIs were denied rights to bring rupee notes back into the country.