Australia denies uranium supply to India

Sydney, Sep 8: India seems to in an another petty mangle as Australia has denied to sell uranium to India despite voting with other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to end a 34-year embargo on nuclear trade with Delhi, officials said on Monday, Sep 8. "However, Labor is committed to supplying uranium to only those countries party to the NPT. Australia will therefore not be supplying uranium to India while it is not a member of the NPT," Australian trade Minister Simon Crean was quoted as saying in 'The Australian' newspaper.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd took office in November pledged to withhold uranium sales so long as India remains outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

John Howard, his conservative predecessor, held that India's refusal to sign the NPT should not debar it from importing uranium from Australia, custodian of 40 per cent of the world's known reserves.

In a NSG meeting in Vienna at the weekend Australia supported a waiver allowing India to engage in nuclear trade so long as its nuclear programme came under an inspection regime.

"Foreign Minister Stephen Smith should use next week's visit to India to announce a new uranium export policy for New Delhi," Opposition Foreign Affairs spokesman Andrew Robb said Sunday, Sep 7.

"Since that time, the Rudd Government has been humiliated into supporting the US-India agreement at meetings of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the NSG which effectively condoned the sale of uranium to India by other countries around the world," he added.

OneIndia News