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Supply uranium to India: FM asks Australia
MELBOURNE: India on Sunday sought Australia's support for its plans to increase reliance on nuclear power and allow uranium exports to the rapidly industrialising South Asian giant."I would like Australia to support India in its nuclear case and supply uranium to India," Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who is here to attend the G-20 meeting said. Chidambaram said India wants to lift the proportion of nuclear energy it uses to 10 per cent, from a current three per cent of its energy supplies. Acknowledging that getting Australia's support would be hard, he said "Australia takes a very different view presumably because public opinion here is against nuclear power." The Finance Minister said he spoke with Prime Minister John Howard last week about the nuclear issue and that the Australian leader had heard him out "carefully and patiently". "We are a non-proliferator and India's record is impeccable," he said in an interview to the Australian Associated Press. India earlier also sought uranium from Australia but Canberra said it has reservations on supplying uranium to countries which have not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Australia has more than 40 per cent of the world's known reserves of uranium. Chidambaram also said he would like to improve India's relationship with Australia, with more air traffic between the two countries. "Tourism is booming between India and Australia and last year we issued 75,000 to 80,000 visas to Australians," he said adding that figure could increase fourfold in next few years. Dismissing fears in Australia about back-office jobs in companies such as banks and other financial institutions being sent to India, Chidambaram said the value of offshoring from Australia to India was worth around $A250 million a year. The trade balance between the two countries was $5 billion in favour of Australia. He said, "We have around 7,000 students who come from India to Australia every year and I believe the value they bring to Australia is far in excess of $250 million". "The argument about Australia outsourcing to India and losing in the bargain is completely misplaced," he added. Posted by: john 2006-11-19 |
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