Anti-immigration backlash roils ties between Australia and India - part II

Moreover, bilateral ties had already cooled since the 2007 election of the Labor Party’s Kevin Rudd. Indians see Rudd, a fluent Mandarin speaker who served in China, as overly sensitive to Beijing’s concerns. Last year, Canberra helped Beijing block a loan to India that included funding for projects in a northeastern Indian state claimed by China.

Taking a hard line on India’s long-standing refusal to sign the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), Rudd also reversed his predecessor John Howard’s decision to sell uranium to India after last year’s landmark civil nuclear agreement between India and the US.

On the brighter side, however, trade ties continue to boom. The Australian government estimates that within a few years India - with its vast appetite for natural resources - is likely to become Australia's third largest export market behind China and Japan.

The India-Australia spat also has wider implications for the region and the world. For one it shows how, in the age of the 24-hour news cycle and the Internet, managing public perceptions can be a key component of diplomacy. For India, it influences the question of whether the country will emerge as a natural ally of fellow English-speaking democracies, or as a country with a somewhat adversarial relationship with the West.

Only a few years ago, diplomats in Washington were touting a natural alliance between the region’s democracies, foremost among them India, Japan and Australia. But events in Australia over the past year show that such hopes may well be premature.