The formal negotiations between India and Australia on a nuclear safeguard agreement which are expected to commence here on Wednesday will be time consuming and make India’s wait for uranium from “Down Under” longer.
Visiting Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard was reported by Australian newspaper the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) as saying that negotiations for the safeguard agreement will take one to two years instead of just months. Ms Gillard will be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday for bilateral talks.
However, before some hard-nosed discussions take place on the supply of uranium to India, the Australian premier appeared to strike the right chord among Indians by resorting to cricket diplomacy here on Tuesday. She announced that Indian batting legend Sachin Tendulkar would be conferred the prestigious Order of Australia.
Amidst fears being expressed by some quarters about the proposed sale of uranium to India, Ms Gillard, who is on her maiden visit to India as her country’s PM, sought to allay such misgivings. The SMH reported that Ms Gillard said that Australia knows how to carry out such negotiations in order to ensure the uranium is used for peaceful purposes.
She was also reported by the Australian press as saying that the safeguards would have the backing of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). There is a lot at stake for Ms Gillard herself as far as the safeguard agreement is concerned. For it was Ms Gillard who had pushed her party, the Australian Labour party, to reverse the ban on uranium exports to India by her country.
The ban had been in place as her party is opposed to the sale of uranium to any country that’s not a signatory to the NPT as is the case with India. Australia has the world’s largest uranium deposits and India has been eyeing these for quite some time.
Of course, the decision by the Australian government to consider the sale of uranium to India is driven by the pressing concern to woo India particularly on the business and economic front.