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Australian Foreign Minister’s visit : Refuses to supply uranium without India signing NPT |
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Australia has made it clear that it will not supply India Uranium till it signs the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, who was on a five-day visit to India, in his talks with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee told him that as a matter of policy of the present Australian Government, Australia could not supply uranium to this country despite the approval of the India-specific waiver by the NSG unless it signed the NPT. However, he said, Australia strongly supports India’s inclusion as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.
Smith came to New Delhi on Sept. 11 after visiting Chennai and Hyderabad. He met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other Indian leaders in addition to holding talks with Mukherjee. In his talks, Mukherjee restated India’s view that it has no intention of using nuclear weapons first or testing a nuclear weapon which swung the NSG towards the consensus.
Delivering a speech later at the Indian Council for World Affairs, Smith said the Australian Government’s policy is not to supply uranium to non-NPT countries for use in nuclear programmes. He said this position remained unaffected by the NSG decision. He said his country’s decision not to supply uranium will not affect its relations with India which go beyond the export of minerals.
The two Foreign Ministers discussed bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest and importance. They noted that India and Australia had a strong commitment to countering the scourge of global terrorism. Smith condemned the recent suicide bombing of the Indian Embassy in Kabul as well as terrorist attacks in Ahmedabad and Bangalore.
Labour Government’s policy on uranium supply
When former Australian Prime Minister John Howard who visited in India in March 2006, the Indian Government requested him for uranium sales. The Howard Government had a policy of exporting uranium only to NPT signatory states. But within 16 months, the conservative Howard Government radically changed policy, announcing its intent to sell yellowcake to India subject to safeguards and the NSG’s approval.
That was then, Howard promptly lost an election. Today’s Labour Government in Canberra, under Kevin Rudd, has restored the NPT-members-only policy on uranium sales. Yet it also has a strong commitment to ties with India.
In the long run, an Australian uranium supply relationship with India is likely. But Rudd won’t risk domestic contention on this. Australia will watch to see if the US-India deal is politically durable in India and whether a hyper-democratic India with its restive coalitions, can be a reliable partner.
The agenda of common interests is long. On the strategic plane, these include: ensuring continued US engagement in an Asian system which can accommodate a rising but not destabilisingly dominant China protecting sealanes for trade and energy security; improving and coordinating responses to natural disasters and climate change; and countering terrorism and jihadist ideology in Pakistan, Afghanistan and South East Asia. Engagement looks set to deepen across these fronts, including candid dialogue among defence and security agencies. Australia has troops fighting and dying in Afghanistan. Their foes are India’s too. At sea, operationally focused talks and exercises take place between navies that see each other as partners of choice. So the future is bright- except for the nuclear issue. Yet Indian observers should reflect on how far Australia has come. A decade ago, Canberra saw India as part of the global nuclear proliferation problem. Australian support for India’s waiver at the NSG shows that Canberra’s foreign and security policy establishment now sees India as part of the proliferation solution. Indian observers are perplexed at the contradiction between Australia’s backing for the US-India deal and its refusal to countenance uranium exports under that deal. But Indians should be used to political compromise. Australia’s position on nuclear ties with India is more about balance than consistency.
India looks to Canada, Kazakhstan for uranium
With Australia continuing to act pricey about exporting uranium to India despite the green signal from the NSG, India’s nuclear establishment has started setting its sights on other sources. Canada and Kazakhstan are emerging as possible key suppliers.
Although Australia has the world’s largest reserves of uranium, Canada produces the most and has a 23 per cent global share while Australia has 21 per cent followed by Kazakhstan at 16 per cent, nuclear experts said. Canada, which supplied CIRUS, India’s first heavy water reactor, about half a century ago, is expected to be a key player in India’s new nuclear market. It will not only be tapped for its CANDU reactors that allow the breeding of thorium directly but also for uranium supplies, sources said. However, it is Kazakhstan that has emerged as a dark horse as little has been known about the country’s strength in uranium production. It produced about 6,600 tonnes of uranium in 2007 compared to about 9,500 by Canada and 8600 by Australia. It plans to raise production to 15,000 tonnes by 2010 and 30,000 tonnes by 2018 to become the world’s largest producer. India’s estimated production in 2007, on the other hand, was a measly 270 tonnes. Russia, Japan and China have already rushed to build ties with the decade-old Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s State-owned nuclear company, while global nuclear majors such as Areva, Westinghouse, Sumitomo and Kansai are involved in uranium mining and other aspects of the fuel cycle. Niger and Namibia are also likely to be on a shortlist of countries that New Delhi plans to tap.
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