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Down Under | ||
Howard ready to re-examine uranium policy with India | ||
2006-03-06 | ||
Prime Minister John Howard has arrived in India for a three-day visit where he is expected to be asked to consider changing Australia's policy on exporting uranium to the South Asian giant. According to newspaper reports, India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will ask Mr Howard to change Australia's position in the light of the United States last week signing a nuclear co-operation deal with India. Australia currently does not sell uranium to nuclear-armed India because it has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
"Australia does have large supplies of uranium, we have some of the largest uranium deposits in the world, and provided the rules are followed and the safeguards are met, we are willing to sell." Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Friday that while he welcomes a nuclear deal between India and the United States, it will not lead Australia to sell uranium to India. "If we were to export uranium to India, that would constitute a significant shift in our policy. I mean, it would open up questions of whether we'd export uranium to countries like Israel and Pakistan as well," he told AM last week.
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Posted by:Steve White |