Australia may supply uranium to India for JV power plants

Natasha Chaku

Cairns, Aug 7 (PTI) India on Friday expressed its
interest in having civil nuclear cooperation with Australia
amid indications that the two countries are likely to sign an
energy agreement in November under which Australia may supply
uranium for joint venture power plants.

Australia's policy of not supplying uranium to
countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-proliferation
Treaty (NPT) was noted by Union External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna who had discussions on a wide variety of bilateral
subjects with Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his
counterpart Stephen Smith.

Nevertheless, Krishna told a press conference here
after his discussions "while we have noted Australia's
position on the issue of the supply of Uranium to India, we
would be interested in having civil nuclear cooperation with
Australia as well, as and when it is ready."

Rudd is expected to visit India in November when the
two countries are likely to sign an "Energy Declaration" for
generation of nuclear power for which his country may supply
uranium.

Krishna said that "India needs to expand the use of
nuclear power to meet our growing energy requirement in a
climate friendly way. We are thankful for Australia's support
in International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and NSG.
Following the NSG waiver we have been making progress on civil
nuclear cooperation with partners such as US, France and
Russia."

Apart from the visit of Rudd, the Union External
Affairs Minister said that Australian Deputy Prime Minister
Julia Gillard and Foreign Minister Smith would also visit
India this year.

Krishna, who is on a five-day visit to Australia,
said "we are looking forward to these three high-profile
meetings that will be held in India."

He also noted that both the countries were also
focussed on expanding cooperation in two-way trade and
investment in various sectors especially in energy and
resources.

With Australia, the areas for possible further
cooperation included natural gas, coal and fertilizers. "There
is a significant degree of complementarity between out two
economies," the minister said.

"Our decision to undertake a free trade agreement
feasibility study is an indication of the great potential that
we see for growth in trade and investment between our two
countries." PTI NC
SDE