There is a world beyond the nuclear field in which India and Australia need to get together. Defence cooperation, naval visits should follow.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s three-day visit to India earlier this week is being viewed as “more than successful” in the media in that country and the Australian leader herself appears satisfied with its outcome.
In her view, the two reasons that cast a shadow on ties — Canberra’s earlier hesitation to sell uranium to India to run nuclear power plants, and the problems faced by Indian students in Australia — have been discussed in the right spirit and there is now a better understanding of these matters on both sides.
However, the real measure of Ms Gillard’s interactions here is that it potentially lays the foundation of a structured relationship for the future if both sides are guided less by cant and more by practical considerations to mutual advantage. Although the previous conservative government in Australia had cleared uranium exports to India, Ms Gillard’s Labour Party had held out against the move. But in November last year the Prime Minister herself broke the taboo her party had nurtured of blocking uranium sales to India because this country has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and runs a nuclear weapons programme besides. She had argued her case in a newspaper article. Indians have always found it surprising that Australia has been exporting uranium to authoritarian China but has demurred at doing so with India which, unlike Beijing, has a completely clean track record in the proliferation field.
During Ms Gillard’s recent visit, it was agreed that the two countries will put in place a safeguards agreement so that uranium exports to India may begin. This is perfect. India badly needs nuclear fuel since it hopes to rapidly expand the production of nuclear energy to feed its fast-growing economy. Exports to India should also help establish Australia’s uranium industry on a firm footing.
But there is a world beyond the nuclear field in which India and Australia need to get together. The two need to increase not only bilateral stakes in one another but also engage in cross-regional fertilisation across the Indian Ocean. Defence cooperation, intelligence sharing, naval visits should follow. India’s peaceful space programme can also be tapped by Australia. More Indians and Australians can be working in each other’s countries.
The India-Australia relationship has been little more than fringe, and this can change if there is will on both sides. This cooperation, of course, cannot be at the expense of a third country. India has had good ties with China for nearly two decades despite an unsettled border. This country’s ties with Japan, Korea and Asean are also expanding. Bringing Canberra into the fold of steady cooperation should round off the narrative.
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