The burgeoning strategic ties between India and Australia received a further boost with the ruling Labour Party voting to reverse a ban on uranium exports to India during its annual conference in Sydney on Sunday. With this lifting of the ban, India will also be hoping to move a step further in its quest for energy security.
New Delhi responded to the overturn of the ban by saying that it welcomed this initiative. External affairs minister S.M. Krishna in a statement said that bilateral cooperation in the energy sector is an important facet of ties between the two countries. His statement was also careful to mention that the uranium sale will be for power generation.
The overturn of the ban comes just days after New Delhi snubbed Canberra about a possible trilateral security pact involving the US, Australia and India. Canberra quickly denied that any such suggestion had been made.
Commenting on the uranium ban reversal, Rory Medcalf, director of the International Security Program at the Lowy Institute for International Policy, Australia, told this newspaper that it’s really the geopolitical context which is “the most important aspect of this decision”. According to Mr Medcalf, the decision is driven, more than anything, by Australia’s wish to build a strategic relationship of trust and mutual respect with a rising and democratic India. “After all, India will eventually become our largest economic partner after China. This is not primarily about jobs or short-term export income,” he remarked. Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who had announced her intention to seek a lifting of the ban early last month, was able to push through with the decision on Sunday despite some strident voices of dissent within her party, among them her transport minister, Anthony Albanese. The Labour Party had, till thus far, refrained from selling uranium to India as it is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.