Oz may lift ban on exporting uranium to India

[lambu]

Melbourne: In a bid to strengthen bilateral ties, Australian government could review and lift the long standing ban on uranium export to India later this year, a media report said on Thursday.

"Later this year, the (Julia) Gillard Government is likely to take two very big decisions affecting relations with the US and India. It will provide much greater access for US military forces to northern Australia. This could ultimately lead to US ships being based in Australia.

"And it will likely lift the ban on selling Australian uranium to India. Both decisions should be seen against the backdrop of China," The Australian said.

Expert on foreign affairs Greg Sheridan in the article said: "I now believe senior ministers within the Gillard government will make a serious attempt to change this policy at Labor Party's national conference in December."

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[thakur_ritesh]

der se aaye, durust aaye (better late than never)! not bad at all.

a very interesting observation and quite contrary to what our chinese friends have to say about their country's relations with indonesia

It further commented that even more importantly the US-India-Indonesia-Australia relationship was essential to Canberra's ability to manage successfully the growing power of China.

 

[roma]

as i cpmmented in another post it was John HOward who broke the embargo some years back and agreed to supply india with uranium in the light of anticipation of the US - india nuke deal , then he lost the elections and kevin rudd came in and reversed the deal . Now it seems Julia Guillard, who pulled a party coup on rudd is reversing rudd's decision ..... rather convenient for india i'd say .

 

[Zebra]

This new development happened after S. M. Krishna's last visit to Australia .

 

[ejazr]

This has to happen sooner or later. The U ban reversal under Russ/Gilliard was more to do with domestic politics rather than strategic interests. There is a vocal green movement that baulks at any sale of Uranium to a non-NPT signatory. But some effective public diplomacy should help in countering that.

More specifically, it should be clarified that Australian Uranium is being used ONLY for power generation, not nuclear weapons. And given India's track record on proliferation, Australia should be more confident in selling it Uranium than China.