Australia reverses decision to sell uranium

NEW DELHI: In a major setback for India, Australia’s new Labour government has reversed the John Howard regime’s decision to sell uranium to India.

Australian foreign minister Stephen Smith told former foreign secretary and nuclear envoy Shyam Saran on Tuesday that Canberra would not sell uranium to New Delhi unless it signs NPT.

“We went into election with a strong policy commitment (that) we would not export uranium to nation states who are not members of the nuclear NPT,” the minister said after the meeting with Mr Saran.

“India is a nation state that is not a party to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. I don’t think there’s any expectation in the international community that it will become a member,” agency reports from Perth quoting the minister said.

Mr Saran had last year convinced Australia’s former conservative government to end a ban on uranium sales to India, overturning a policy of selling fuel only to NPT signatories.

Former prime minister John Howard had looked at India as a potential market for increasing exports. Mr Howard had called up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to inform him about the decision which reversed Australia’s long-standing policy to supply uranium to only NPT signatories.

Mr Howard had defended his government’s decision to sell uranium to India, a nuclear power state, saying the deal was subject to strict guarantees that the fuel would be used for electricity generation only. Mr Howard, a strong supporter of US President George Bush, had also noted that the sales would depend on implementation of a landmark civilian nuclear deal between New Delhi and Washington.

Australia has 40% of the world’s known reserves of uranium and exports to 36 countries. India has been lobbying Canberra for access to it. Australia is currently negotiating safeguards for $220 million worth of uranium exports to Beijing. The new prime minister is seen to be more inclined towards China.

The decision of Canberra was not unexpected as the Labour Party had attacked the Howard cabinet’s decision as a bad deal during the run-up to the election. Australia-watchers here say that Canberra could also take a position away from the quadrilateral grouping of Australia, India, US and Japan which has gained the reputation of a ‘contain China’ grouping.

Some experts, who see this development as ominous, are predicting a slowdown in bilateral ties. Diplomatic sources, however, say that Canberra cannot ignore India which is Australia’s fastest-growing trading partner.

Education ties between the two countries are also strong with 54,000 Indian students and 234,000 Indian residents in Australia. These are all factors that cannot be ignored, say optimists.