Australia Rules Out Uranium Sales to India

The newly installed Australian Labor government has reversed a decision by the previous Howard administration to sell uranium yellowcake to India. Canberra has said it will ban such sales to New Delhi until it agrees to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

The previous Liberal-National coalition had followed a commitment by the Bush administration in the United States that allowed the sale of the resource despite New Delhi’s refusal to sign the treaty. Then-Prime Minister John Howard defended his government’s policy saying it would bring India more into the mainstream, forcing it to provide assurances over the disposal of the uranium. He continued with this policy even after lawmakers stalled the US-India agreement in the Indian parliament.
Opened for signature on July 1, 1968, the NPT is designed to prevent the proliferation of nuclear material throughout the world. The treaty currently has 189 signatories of which five are in possession of nuclear weapons: the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.

Four nations are not signatories: India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea. All four either have admitted possessing nuclear weapons of are suspected of carrying out nuclear weapon programs.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told India’s nuclear envoy Shyam Saran this week that the Labor party had campaigned prior to the November election against nuclear proliferation.

Ohmy News