Jan 20: Refusing to take Australia’s no as an answer to India’s plea for sale of uranium, the external affairs minister, Mr S.M. Krishna, on Thursday pleaded without success for a change in that position. Mr Krishna raised the issue of uranium sale with Australia for the second consecutive day during his meeting with his counterpart, Mr Kevin Rudd, who, however, said his country’s stand remains unchanged.
The external affairs minister had on Wednesday taken up the matter with Australia’s resource, energy and tourism minister, Mr Martin Ferguson. Mr Rudd acknowledged India’s clean record on nuclear proliferation, but maintained it was Australia’s national policy not to sell uranium to NPT non-signatories.
“Australia fundamentally respects India’s long standing credentials on the non-proliferation question,” he said. Addressing a joint press conference here with Mr Krishna, Mr Rudd acknowledged that India has not been responsible for a single act of nuclear weapons proliferation anywhere in the world.
“Something which we place on record again as being our views of India’s public policy posture and operational behaviour for a very long period of time,” he said.
Australia is unwilling to sell uranium to India because it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mr Rudd said the issue, however, has not damaged ties between the countries.
“However, Australia’s stands on NPT remains. We continue to discuss these matters as friends do,” he said, emphasising on the strategic partnership that the two countries shared. Meanwhile, in a joint statement, Mr Krishna and Mr Rudd said they had reviewed the measures taken by the Australian government in 2010 to address concerns over the safety and well being of Indian students in Australia.