India signed a deal with Australia on Thursday to secure long-term supply of uranium for nuclear power plants, in a boost to its ambition of 100 GW nuclear energy capacity by 2047.
The agreement, announced after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese held talks in Melbourne, comes nearly 12 years after the two countries signed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement.
Fueling the Baseload
It is significant for India’s energy strategy as nuclear power is expected to provide firm, non-fossil electricity while the country rapidly adds renewable capacity and prepares for rising demand from industry, electrification, data centres and urbanisation.
The two countries also sealed a number of pacts covering critical minerals, defence, maritime cooperation, cyber technologies, supply chains and education.
According to an India-Australia joint statement on energy security, the two countries have “finalised the administrative arrangements necessary to enable the export of Australian uranium to India for exclusively peaceful purposes and under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards”.
Modi called the nuclear agreement a key clean-energy outcome of the bilateral talks. “Today, we have signed an important agreement in the field of nuclear energy. This will…give new impetus to our clean energy objectives,” he said.
The uranium arrangement will support India’s ambition to raise nuclear capacity from a modest base.
India currently operates 24 nuclear reactors across seven sites with a combined installed capacity of 8.78 GW. Nuclear power contributes around 3.1% of the country’s electricity generation.
The installed capacity is expected to reach about 22 GW by 2031-32. The government’s Nuclear Energy Mission aims to scale this up to 100 GW by 2047.
Albanese said the pact would facilitate uranium exports to India for peaceful purposes. “The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help increase the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity, providing an additional market for the Australian resources sector,” he said.
The energy statement placed the deal in the broader context of global supply-chain uncertainty. India and Australia said they share “deep concern” over the situation in West Asia and its consequences for the region, including the prolonged impact of disruptions on energy, resources and other commodity supply chains and prices. “Amid this disruption, we reaffirm our shared commitment to open markets and rules-based trade,” the statement said.
The two countries also recognised Australia’s role as an important supplier of liquefied natural gas to India and India’s role as a supplier of liquid fuels and downstream products to Australia. They committed to support continued energy flows, enhance bilateral energy trade and investment, and strengthen energy security by maintaining “stable, secure and reliable” supplies of coal, diesel, other liquid fuels and natural gas while accelerating cooperation on low-carbon fuels.
Beyond Energy Security
The economic track also moved forward. Modi said the economic cooperation and trade agreement signed in 2022 had expanded trade and investment horizons. “We have now decided to expedite work on the comprehensive economic cooperation agreement, which will be balanced, ambitious, and a win-win for both countries. We will also move forward rapidly on the bilateral investment treaty,” he said.
The uranium deal was part of a broader set of outcomes. India and Australia issued a joint declaration on defence and security cooperation, a maritime security collaboration road map, a joint statement on energy security, and a partnership on cyber, critical technologies and supply chains. The two sides also decided to move ahead on the proposed comprehensive economic cooperation agreement and investment cooperation.
The joint statement said both leaders reaffirmed commitment to critical minerals cooperation and underlined the need for partnerships among government agencies, public and private companies and research institutions to promote investment, secure long-term supply and offtake arrangements, and support processing and value-addition capabilities. It said “transparent, secure and resilient supply chains” are central to economic security.
Modi said cooperation in critical minerals is vital to India’s strategic security and clean-energy transition. “With this in mind, today we have launched the Australia-India partnership on cyber, critical technologies, and supply chains,” he said, adding that both countries would work together on a critical minerals corridor.
On defence and maritime security, Modi said the Indo-Pacific “is not just the confluence of two oceans” but also symbolises the shared aspirations of like-minded democracies such as India and Australia. He said the two sides had issued a joint declaration to enhance defence and security cooperation and, through the India-Australia defence innovation corridor, would work to connect defence startups and industries.
Modi was in Australia in the second leg of his three-nation tour. He addressed the diaspora in Melbourne on Thursday. He landed in Australia from Indonesia and will move to New Zealand from there.