The NSW Premier's India mission: trade, investment and what it means for business

Aims of the mission

The mission is targeted at sectors where New South Wales sees a competitive advantage: education, research and innovation, agri-food, clean energy, critical minerals, technology, tourism and advanced industries. It will also build on New South Wales's sister-state relationship with Maharashtra, the State that is home to Mumbai and one of India's largest economic centres.

The India program is part of a wider regional push. While the Premier travels on to Kathmandu from 4 to 5 September to strengthen New South Wales's engagement with Nepal, the Treasurer will continue India-focused programming in Bengaluru, maintaining momentum on trade, investment and technology.

The state of two-way trade

India is now among Australia's largest trading partners, with two-way trade in goods and services of around A$54.4 billion in 2024-25, making it Australia's fifth-largest trading partner.

New South Wales accounts for a meaningful share of that engagement - in 2024-25, New South Wales and India traded around $6.87 billion in goods.

Selected major commodity flows in Australia–India merchandise trade

Source: Government of India, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Department of Commerce, TradeStat, Commodity x Country Matrices, report generated 26 August 2026. Latest available data to June 2026. Values in US$ million. Percentages calculated from India-reported merchandise trade data.

Note: Indian import data are presented as Australian exports to India and Indian export data as Australian imports from India. Selected major commodity categories are shown and therefore the commodities displayed do not sum to 100%.

Underpinning this is the Australia-India Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA), which entered into force on 29 December 2022 as India's first trade agreement with a developed economy in over a decade. As we explained when the ECTA was first signed, it was always intended as an interim, "early harvest" step. Under the ECTA, India committed to phasing out tariffs on over 85% of Australian goods exports, including key NSW exports such as wool, cotton and certain food products, while from 1 January 2026 all Australian tariff lines sit at zero duty for Indian exports. The two governments are now working to convert the ECTA into a full Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) covering goods, services, investment and digital trade. At the July 2026 Leaders’ Summit, both Prime Ministers agreed to fast-track those negotiations, with both sides reaffirming their commitment to an early and ambitious conclusion.

The July 2026 Leaders' Summit: the national backdrop

The Premier's mission follows a step-change at the national level. At the third India-Australia Annual Leaders' Summit in Melbourne on 9 July 2026, Prime Ministers Albanese and Modi delivered a broad program of outcomes with real commercial and legal tails, which we analysed in The Australia-India Annual Summit: from ECTA to CECA, and what it means for business.

The commercially significant outcomes included:

• a reaffirmed commitment to conclude an ambitious, balanced and mutually beneficial CECA;

• deeper cooperation on critical minerals across investment, long-term supply, offtake and downstream processing;

• a new Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains (PACTS) and a trilateral Australia-Canada-India Technology and Innovation Partnership;

• a Joint Statement on Energy Security and continued work under the Renewable Energy Partnership;

• expanded education ties, including approvals for Australian university campuses in Bengaluru and Gurugram; and

• an increase in defence and security cooperation.

For NSW businesses, the Summit sets the strategic frame the trade mission is designed to convert into deals.

Civil nuclear cooperation and uranium

The single most significant outcome for the resources sector was in civil nuclear energy. At the Melbourne Summit, Australia and India finalised the Administrative Arrangement (Arrangement) giving effect to the 2014 Australia-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement (which entered into force in November 2015), clearing the way for long-term exports of Australian uranium to India.

The Arrangement operationalises a framework that had been more than a decade in the making. Australian uranium may be supplied only to countries with which Australia has a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and all Australian uranium exported to India will be restricted to peaceful purposes and remain subject to International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards. Given India is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and operates both civilian and military programs, the safeguards and civilian-military separation requirements are central to the Arrangement.

The commercial opportunities are significant. India is targeting around 100 GW of nuclear generation capacity by 2047, from a base where nuclear currently supplies roughly 3% of its electricity, and Australia holds one of the world's largest shares of known uranium reserves.

As we set out in Australia-India uranium deal: what it means for producers and investors, producers and investors should watch this framework closely, including any changes to state and territory legislative regimes, some of which continue to restrict uranium mining (currently only South Australia and the Northern Territory permit both exploration and mining), and developments on the Indian side, where India’s Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy Act 2025, in force from 21 December 2025, has removed the former statutory supplier recourse liability, to assess opportunities for new and existing projects.

Opportunities for Australian business

For industry, the mission and the broader relationship present several practical opportunities:

• Critical minerals and resources. The clearest deal flow is in critical minerals. The Summit committed both governments to promoting investment and building secure, long-term supply, offtake and downstream processing capability. For Australian resources companies and their Indian offtakers and investors, this points to joint ventures, long-term supply contracts and co-investment in processing - structures that require careful attention to ownership, governance, dispute resolution and foreign investment screening.

• Clean energy and uranium. Clean energy is a headline sector for the mission and a Summit priority. Opportunities span renewables, green hydrogen, grid and storage technology, and - for producers - the newly opened uranium export pathway. New South Wales's clean energy pipeline and manufacturing base position it to participate in supply chains that both governments are actively seeking to build.

• Technology, cyber and supply chains. The PACTS partnership and the Australia-Canada-India trilateral signal a coordinated push on critical and emerging technologies, supply-chain diversification and digital resilience. Companies in semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, telecommunications and data infrastructure should expect new commercial openings alongside heightened government interest in supply-chain security.

• Education, agri-food and services. Education remains a foundation of the NSW-India relationship, with new campus approvals and skills initiatives deepening the market. In agri-food, the September 2025 Mutual Recognition Arrangement on organic products, covering unprocessed plant products, processed plant-based foods and organic wine, has reduced compliance costs and friction for exporters, and a fuller CECA is expected to widen access for services and goods alike.

• Corporate structuring and capital. The July Summit's CEO Forum and its emphasis on stronger coordination between the two countries' finance institutions point to more business-to-business linkages and cross-border transactions. Australian companies should map where a fuller CECA would improve market access and prepare to move early.