Thiruvananthapuram, Sept. 22 -- Australian Consul General in Chennai, Silai Zaki, met Keralam Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala at his office in the Secretariat on Tuesday.

According to the High Commission of India to Australia, the historical ties between India and Australia started immediately following European settlement in Australia from 1788. All trade to and fro from the penal colony of New South Wales was controlled by the British East India Company through Kolkata.

India and Australia established diplomatic relations in the pre-Independence period, with the establishment of the India Trade Office in Sydney in 1941. Australia's first High Commissioner to India was appointed in 1944, while India's first High Commissioner to Austra...