Australia’s relationship with India grows ever closer despite one key divergence

July 14, 2026 — 5:00am

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There was a moment last week when Narendra Modi told the jubilant night-time crowd of 28,221 in Melbourne to hold up their phones.

Turn on your phone flashlights, he instructed to the crowd in a near-freezing Marvel Stadium on Thursday. And they did.

Not to ask for a tribute to himself as the visiting prime minister of India but to acknowledge his host, Anthony Albanese.

“In honour of my friend, the prime minister, all of you turn on the flashlights of your mobile phones and honour him,” he said, in Hindi. “In his honour.”

As thousands of glow-tipped arms waved back and forth like a luminescent anemone, a smiling Albanese pressed his hands together in the Anjali Mudra gesture that accompanies namaste, returning the tribute to the crowd. Which only cheered louder. For any politician, it would be an uplifting endorsement.

The stadium chant that could be heard as the crowd raised their phones, however, was not “Albo, Albo” but “Modi, Modi”. At various points in the evening, a chant of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” went up.

It was certainly a high point for the Indian-Australian relationship and the million-strong Indian Australian diaspora.

“Two great democracies,” Albanese lauded, “two great multicultural societies.”

In an implied repudiation of the xenophobia of Pauline Hanson, he addressed the crowd: “Over generations, your commitment to Australian aspiration and your love of this country has made it better, stronger, and more vibrant … We are a better nation because we have you in it.”

But the evening was Modi’s. He was, as........

© The Age