China reacts cautiously to Australia's move to sell uranium to India

BEIJING: A day after Australia's ruling Labor reversed it policy of not selling uranium to India, China on Monday gave a guarded response to the move, saying all countries are entitled to peaceful use of nuclear energy.

"China always believes countries are entitled to peaceful use of nuclear energy and at the same time they should fulfil the international obligations of nuclear non-proliferation," Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei told a media briefing here.

His remarks came when his reaction was sought on Australia's ruling Labor party's reversal of its longstanding policy of not selling uranium to India on the ground that it had not signed the Nuclear non-Proliferation Treaty.

Delegates at the Australian Labor Party's (ALP's) national conference in Sydney yesterday favoured Prime Minister Julia Gillard's decision to open up uranium sale to India despite the country being a non-signatory to the NPT.