Tony Abbott is expected to sign the agreement allowing uranium sales to India when he meets the new Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a fellow conservative, in Delhi on Friday, during a visit aimed at boosting trade ties.
Australia, the world's third biggest uranium producer, had previously ruled out such exports to energy-starved India because it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
But Abbott said his government has now received the necessary commitments from New Delhi about only using the ore for its civilian nuclear programme.
"India has an absolutely impeccable non-proliferation record and India has been a model international citizen," he told reporters in Mumbai, on the first leg of his two-day visit.
"India threatens no one, India is the friend to many, it is the world's emerging democratic superpower. This is an important sign of the mutual trust that exists between Australia and India."
India and Australia kick-started negotiations on uranium sales in 2012 after Canberra lifted a long-time ban on exporting the valuable ore to Delhi to meet its ambitious nuclear energy program.
Both India and its neighboring rival Pakistan are nuclear-armed, and along with Israel and North Korea are the only countries not signed up to the non-proliferation treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Australia's nuclear cooperation agreement for peaceful power generation will potentially ramp up India's plans for more nuclear power stations, with only 20 small plants at present and a heavy dependency on coal.
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@Feroz: By the time Obama gets to meet PM Modi I wonder what will be left for them to bag.
Obama can offer Modi fracking technology and secret formula for fracturing fluid. US and Canada are world leader in this technology and it will help India in getting self sufficient in hydrocarbons.
India is now set to grow at faster rate and modi plan to connect all rural area with electricity will require lot of resources and coal won't be able to fulfill in future and its also getting expensive every year and hence focus need to be shifted to other options like solar and nuclear so good deal for India.
“India threatens no one, India is the friend to many, it is the world’s emerging democratic superpower."
India is a soft superpower for sure. More and more countries are now appreciating what India is all about.
With Japan already setting aside $ 35 Billion for investment in India over the next five years and bagging some plum projects there is some nervousness in global capitals. Since everyone wants a big bite of the pie who moves fastest will grab the best deals. Australian PM is already in India even before Modi could return from Japan, very cleverly they will supply Uranium they cannot supply to anyone else and leverage it to bag a few contracts too. You scratch my back, I scratch your back, is the game in town. No sooner Abbot leaves the Chinese Premier visits and they are as keen to bag some big Infrastructure deals. By the time Obama gets to meet PM Modi I wonder what will be left for them to bag. If all these big ticket investments come in as FDI, the Indian Rupee should appreciate from current levels, the Stock Market having already appreciated by 50% over the last twelve months. Good negotiating skills will be needed to ensure that pricing is competitive.