Australia moves to lift India uranium ban
Prime Minister Julia Gillard moved yesterday to lift Australia's controversial ban on uranium sales to nuclear power India in a bid to strengthen relations with the fast-growing economic powerhouse.
While Canberra exports uranium to China, Japan, Taiwan and the United States, India has been excluded because New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, a prerequisite her Labor Party puts on sales.
Julia Gillard wrote in a newspaper column that it made no sense to sell nuclear material to China, Japan and the US, but not to India.
Gillard's Labor Party introduced the ban in 2008 because India had not signed the non-proliferation treaty.
Australia holds about 40% of the world's proven reserves of uranium and supplies about 20% of the world market.
The country has no nuclear power facilities itself but allows the export of uranium for peaceful purposes.
India has a long-standing nuclear power programme, but also has nuclear weapons.
Delhi has refused to sign the non-proliferation treaty, arguing that it is discriminatory because only countries that had tested nuclear weapons before 1967 are allowed to legally possess them.
Despite this, the US recently signed a deal with New Delhi to co-operate on its civil nuclear programme.
Gillard, writing before the Labor Party conference next month, urged her colleagues to drop their support for the ban, describing India as a close partner.
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