Australia not willing to give India uranium despite NSG support

India is unlikely to get Australian uranium in the near future even as pressure mounts on the Labour government to reverse its ban on uranium exports to India to meet its growing energy demand.

Despite supporting New Delhi at the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) over the weekend, Australia has reaffirmed that it will not export uranium to India unless the latter signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“Labour is committed to supplying uranium to only those countries party to the NPT. Australia will, therefore, not be supplying uranium to India while it is not a member of the NPT,” Trade Minister Simon Crean told reporters.

The Kevin Rudd government had last November reversed the initiative by the former John Howard-led coalition government to sell uranium to India for its civilian nuclear programme. Australia has 40 percent of the world’s known uranium reserves.

Economic Times