Talks with India on civil nuclear co-operation priority process: Australia

NEW DELHI: Ahead of the next round of talks with India on civil nuclear cooperation pact, Australia today termed them as a "priority process" and said the two countries would be able to negotiate an accord on "terms agreeable to both".

"The negotiations would be continuing next week and Australia and India are working to conclude this civil nuclear cooperation agreement. I met (Indian) foreign minister (Salman) Khurshid recently and we both agreed it would be a priority process to conclude the deal as soon as possible," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told PTI here.

The minister, who is in India on a four-day visit, said, "It's still a matter of negotiations, but we would be able to negotiate an agreement agreeable both to India and Australia."

Australia is one of the largest exporter of uranium. India hopes to import Australian uranium to feed its nuclear power plant reactors, which are expected to increase in next few years.

A delegation of top officials had recently visited Uzbekistan to discuss the issue of importing uranium from the Central Asian country.

Australia--a key member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group--had been earlier opposed to the idea of selling uranium to India as it has not signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but had reversed its policy in 2011.

Both the countries have had three rounds of negotiations over the issue.

Bishop parried a question on whether the issue of NPT is a road-block.

"Australia will continue to negotiate in good faith with India. It won't be appropriate to go into the details of the negotiations at this point of time," he said.