SEVEN years after the then Australian Prime Minister John Howard decided to sell uranium to India, a non-signatory of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, New Delhi and Canberra signed the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement on Friday, with Howard?s successor Tony Abbott saying that Australia ?trusts India? with its uranium.
After holding talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House, Abbott said, ?Today, we signed a significant specific thing… we signed the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement, because Australia trusts India to do the right thing in this area, just as it has done the right thing in every area since independence almost 70 years ago.?
?Hardly any country on this planet has been a model citizen like India. India has scrupulously dotted every i?s and crossed every t?s when it comes to international law, that?s why we are happy to trust India with our uranium in the months and years (to come),? the Australian Prime Minister said.
Calling the agreement a ?historic milestone? in bilateral ties, Modi said, ?It is a reflection of a new level of mutual trust and confidence in our relationship and will open a new chapter in our bilateral cooperation. It will support India?s efforts to fuel its growth with clean energy and minimise the carbon footprint of its growth.?
The agreement was signed by Atomic Energy Secretary R K Sinha and Australian High Commissioner Patrick Suckling. The signing ceremony was attended by Home Minister Rajnath SIngh, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, HRD Minister Smriti Irani, Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and senior officials from both sides.
Australia went through a series of flip-flops before it finally made up its mind on the agreement. While Howard, a PM from the Liberal Party, decided to sell uranium to India in 2007, it was overturned by the next government of the Labour Party led by Kevin Rudd. The Labour Party has traditionally been opposed to selling uranium to countries which are not NPT signatories.
Subsequently, Rudd was replaced by Julia Gillard, who in 2011, reversed the Labour Party?s position and decided to sell uranium to India. After three years of negotiations, the deal has been signed by Abbott, again a Liberal Party PM.
Australia?s known uranium resources are the world?s largest ? 31 per cent of the world total. It is the world?s third-ranking producer, behind Kazakhstan and Canada, with whom India has already signed deals. The uranium is needed by India to power its existing and proposed nuclear power plants.
On Friday, the India-Australia joint statement said, ?The Prime Ministers welcomed the signing of the bilateral Civil Nuclear Cooperation Agreement as a concrete symbol of the bilateral partnership. They noted the Agreement would enable the sale of Australian uranium to support India?s growing energy needs and directed the negotiators to conclude the Administrative Arrangements at an early date.?