By Renju Jose

SYDNEY, July 9 (Reuters) – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Melbourne on Thursday, with ‌the two leaders expected to discuss critical minerals, trade, defence and security ‌cooperation.

Modi, who previously visited Australia in 2023, touched down Wednesday night to a red-carpet welcome in ​Melbourne, where he will also meet some of the country’s top business executives.

A report in the Australian Financial Review on Wednesday said an agreement on uranium exports to India could be finalised. Though both nations agreed a nuclear cooperation pact in 2014, ‌the export of uranium has ⁠been limited over concerns about ensuring nuclear fuel is solely used for peaceful purposes, such as energy generation.

When asked about a ⁠possible uranium exports deal, Albanese told reporters on Wednesday that he would have “more to say about that with Prime Minister Modi.”

“But we’ve engaged constructively, and so I look ​forward to — ​there’ll be a range of announcements that ​we make together.”

India is Australia’s ‌fifth-largest trading partner after China, Japan, the U.S. and South Korea, while around 1 million people in Australia claim Indian ancestry.

Modi is expected to meet thousands of expatriate Indians at an event in one of the biggest sports stadiums in Melbourne on Thursday evening. Security has been tightened near the stadium after reports of ‌some protests, Australian media said.

The Indian leader is ​known to put up big shows during his ​overseas trips and has addressed ​packed stadiums in the UK, the United States and other ‌countries that have large expatriate Indian populations.

Thousands ​of supporters thronged ​one of Sydney’s biggest indoor stadiums during his last visit three years ago.

Modi arrived in Australia after visiting Indonesia, where he signed a raft of ​deals on agriculture and ‌defence, including for the BrahMos cruise missile system. He will leave for ​New Zealand on Friday afternoon before returning to India.

(Reporting by Renju ​Jose in Sydney; Editing by Sonali Paul)