Oz uranium supplies to India inevitable: Expert

Sydney, Aug 6: The Australian government's decision to allow uranium sales to India is generating quite a bit of controversy here.

Critics of the idea say that Australia is shedding its principles to reward a country that has so far refused to sign the NPT, a move that will encourage other countries, even rogue states to seek nuclear weapons.

Supporters, on the other hand, say that nuclear co-operation with India will reduce the spread of these weapons.

They say, nuclear trade with India, one of the 21st century's emerging giant cannot be ignored and is inevitable.

Non proliferation- the effort to stem the spread of nuclear weapons, though vital for international security, is not the central issue. The issue is to reconcile the 'messy reality of nuclear policy with India's changing place in the global system,' said security expert Rory Medcalf in his article in the Sydney Morning Herald. Medcalf directs the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy.

Australian uranium export to India would be used solely to help meet the latter's huge electricity needs. The argument that this would free India's limited uranium reserves for bombs instead of energy is absurd, as that should mean that Canberra should stop coal imports to New Delhi as well, since it would also free India's uranium stock for its weapons programme.

Though the US deal does put most of India's reactors under safeguards, these are probably the ones to be used for civilian use.

In effect, the Indo-US deal puts the onus on India that it does not share nuclear weapons materials or knowledge with other, but in that sense India has always been a responsible nuclear state, the article said.

At the most what Australia can do is to supply uranium to India under the condition that it will cease supply the moment New Delhi tests another nuclear bomb.

That would affirm that India sustains its moratorium on nuclear testing, and also pave way for India to support the long-overdue negotiation of a verifiable global treaty to ban producing fissile material for weapons, the article said.

&34;It would proclaim India's determination to help thwart efforts by any other state to acquire nuclear weapons, and it would commit India's navy to interdicting illegal nuclear trade in harmony with the Proliferation Security Initiative. It could also reiterate that India has a strictly defensive nuclear posture based on no first use, along with a moral commitment to global nuclear disarmament,&34; the paper said.

ANI
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