Australian government urged to reconsider Indian uranium ban
Updated
One of India's most experienced diplomats says his country is puzzled by Australia's attitude to its nuclear status; he says the government is out of step with the rest of the world in not recognising India's right to nuclear energy and weapons.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speakers: Lalit Mansingh, former Indian Ambassador to the US
SNOWDON: Lalit Mansingh might be retired from the diplomatic service but his opinion still counts, and when he says we, that means the Indian government.
MANSINGH: We would like the new government to think hard about this.
SNOWDON: He's saying the new government of Kevin Rudd should reconsider its opposition to selling uranium to India's nuclear energy program.
MANSINGH: I think Australia is slightly out of step with the thinking of the major powers of the world because the IAEA, the US, Russia, Britain, France, Germany, Japan; everybody has supported the Indo-US nuclear deal, and is supporting the removal of all sanctions against India. So why Australia would deny us the right to buy fuel if we're allowed to buy from anywhere else is an issue that needs to be resolved. And so I hope that the new government will give it full consideration.
SNOWDON: Australia has some of the biggest reserves of uranium but it won't sell it to India because it has never signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
India has signed a landmark agreement with the United States for nuclear energy cooperation, uranium sales and technology transfer.
In return India agreed to international inspections of some of its nuclear facilities.
On the strength of it the former Australian Government under John Howard was considering selling uranium to India, reversing decades of bans.
The new adnimistration in Canberra has reversed that.
Lalit Mansingh.
MANSINGH: It's a moral issue. Look at the inconsistency of Australia supplying uranium to China when China has a non(?) record of proliferation and denying it to India, which has an impeccable record of not transferring nuclear technology to any country. India is really in a desperate position. Think of a billion people, the economy growing at nine-point-five per cent, ten per cent, imagine the vast increase in the demand for energy, where is that going to be met? Right now we are producing about 100-thousand megawatts, it will double by 2012. It'll go to ten times, to one-million megawatts by 2050. So this is the enormity of the Indian demand for power. We are finally looking at nuclear energy as the only way out.
SNOWDON: Ambassador Mansingh says India as an emerging major power in Asia brings no baggage to its role. Its a force for good he says, and remains a supporter of global nuclear disarmament.
He says the nuclear issue will remain an irritant to an improving relationship with Australia.
He was a guest of the Lowy Institutue for International Policy in Sydney whose Director of International Security, Rory Metcalf is a former Australian Intelligence officer and diplomat with experience in India.
He believes its just a matter of time before Australian policy is changed.
METCALF: Look I think sooner or later Australia will have to rethink its position on whether it can consider exporting uranium to India for civilian purposes. The challenge for the Rudd government is to find ways that it can work with India on arms control issues globally to help demonstrate that India is part of the proliferation solution that the ambassador was talking about.
MANSINGH: At the same time I would say let us not be fixated on the uranium issue. There are many bigger issues, we have common problems in the region and we have common strategic interests. We are discussing a free trade agreement, Australia with the second most popular destination for Indian students studying abroad. And so we have a great future together.
