March 26, 2008 Australia Urged to
Sell Uranium to India By Neena Bhandari
Sydney
The Kevin Rudd-led government's firm resolve not to export uranium
to India will put Australia out of step with the approach of the
other leading nations, says one of India's most distinguished
diplomats.
The new Labour government in Canberra has clarified it will not sell
uranium to India unless New Delhi signs the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), reversing the initiative by the
former John Howard Government to sell uranium to India for its
civilian nuclear programme.
"I trust that the uranium issue will be given a deeper and more
serious consideration as the new Government settles in," said Lalit
Mansingh, who has served as India's foreign secretary, high
commissioner to the United Kingdom and ambassador to the United
States.
Emphasising the fact that India has had an exemplary record on
non-proliferation, Mansingh said, "Australia will be hard pressed to
provide the moral justification for selling uranium to China, which
has been a major proliferator of nuclear technology (e.g. to
Pakistan, North Korea, Libya and Iran) while denying access to
India."
Delivering the India Australia Strategic Lecture for 2008 at the
Lowy Institute of International Policy here, Mansingh pointed out
three important premises on which the Indo-US nuclear deal is based.
He said, "One, that the NPT should cease to be the pretext for
punishing India since the violators of the treaty have been those
who signed it, unlike India, which observed the obligations of the
NPT even from the outside.
"Two, that the global non-proliferation regime will be vastly
strengthened by bringing India inside the tent rather than treating
it like a nuclear untouchable.
"And finally, that nuclear power is the most promising source for
India's massive energy requirements in the future. Diverting India
(and China) towards nuclear power will help reduce global pollution
and maintain a measure of stability in oil and gas prices."
"The validity of these arguments has now been accepted by the IAEA
and by the major powers including the US, Russia, Britain, France,
Germany and Japan. If Australia remains firm on not exporting
uranium to India, it will appear to be out of step with the approach
of the other leading nations of the world", said Mansingh, who is
here on his first visit to Australia.
Canberra has welcomed the Indo-US nuclear deal and has hinted that
it will support a waiver being issued by the Nuclear Supplier Group
(NSG). "Supporting India's right to buy nuclear fuel from other
sources through an NSG waiver, also contradicts the logic of not
permitting uranium sales from Australia," he said.
He said nuclear energy is emerging as the "most promising option for
clean, abundant and affordable energy" to meet India's massive
demand for power.
Reiterating that India has been fiercely independent in its foreign
policy, he said, "India is as much at home in the trilateral
dialogue with Beijing and Moscow as with the quadrilateral
cooperation with the US, Japan and Australia."
Earlier, Australia's new Foreign Minister Stephen Smith had made it
clear that Australia wants to proceed with the trilateral security
dialogue between Japan, Australia and the United States, but it
didn't want to take part in the one off, four-way dialogue between
Australia, Japan, the US and India.
China had expressed its concern about the quadrilateral dialogue
that included India and had seen it as an exercise to contain it.
Speaking on the emerging India-US relationship, Mansingh said, "Two
of the happy outcomes of the Indo-US rapprochement have been the new
partnerships established between India and Japan and India and
Australia. India looks to Australia as a long-term associate in its
economic growth and a principal partner for its energy security."
Mansingh is in Australia as a guest of the Australia India Council,
which was established by the Australian government to broaden and
deepen bilateral relations between the two countries.
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