Nuclear needs: India toasts Australian unblocking of uranium sales

Delhi may be the immediate beneficiary but Pakistan, Israel could also profit.


Aditi Phadnis December 05, 2011
Nuclear needs: India toasts Australian unblocking of uranium sales

NEW DEHLI: Senior Indian officials on Sunday hailed Canberra’s decision to overturn a ban on uranium sales to New Delhi, calling it an endorsement of its “impeccable non-proliferation credentials”.

Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard had declared a month earlier that her government planned to allow uranium sales to countries which are not signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but held off until her Labour Party passed a motion at its national policy conference on Sunday.

“It is learnt that the Australian Labour Party agreed today to allow the sale of uranium to India for power generation. Bilateral cooperation in the energy sector is one of the important facets of our multifaceted ties with Australia. We welcome this initiative,” said Foreign Minister SM Krishna, who is currently in Frankfurt. Krishna claimed that the move was an endorsement of India’s “impeccable non-proliferation credentials’’.

Indian officials say the new policy could not have come a day too soon as their country’s nuclear plants are running well below capacity.

At the same time the country’s appetite for uranium is growing and will probably increase ten-fold by 2020 as it boosts its nuclear power generation. India will need about 8,000 tons of uranium annually. Domestic production of uranium is insufficient.

Analysts say the Australian move will not only be a shot in the arm for India’s civil nuclear programme but also could open the door for Pakistan and Israel, the only two other states in the world that possess nuclear weapons but have not signed the NPT.

New Delhi was the net beneficiary of the move by Australia Labour Party, which passed a motion okaying export of uranium to India by 206 votes to 185. The proposal, piloted by Prime Minister Julia Gillard exposed a split within cabinet and left the rank-and-file up in arms. Gillard told the conference a bilateral safeguard agreement would exist with India and the deal would be good for trade, jobs and relations with New Delhi.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 5th, 2011.

COMMENTS (56)

Yuri Kondratyuk | 12 years ago | Reply

@G. Din:

He is not a “nut of Acorn”; he is “Guts of Acorn”!!!!!

Good point LOL!

M | 12 years ago | Reply @LOK: You are correct. Pakistani fantasies are just to have enough nukes to destroy India.Who cares about education, prosperity, human rights, infrastructure, corruption, reputation in the world or any other yardstick of a nations success.
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