Australia has agreed to sell uranium to India for peaceful purposes after the leaders of the two countries signed an administrative deal on Thursday. The agreement will allow the export of the uranium material to India that was held up for years over concerns about weapon use.
Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi made the joint assessment after a meeting in Melbourne. The details, however, did not close the amount of uranium that would be sold or when. Exports of Australian uranium to India stalled after an agreement to do so in 2014 because of concerns that the material could be used for weapons.
Australia has the world’s largest known uranium resources, but the country doesn’t use any nuclear power or weapons, and all uranium is exported. India has the population of 1.4 billion people and a growing middle class and wants to install 100 gigawatts nuclear power by 2047. India, however, is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, which recognized only the United States, China, Britain, France, and Russia as nuclear weapons power.
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Australia, which is a signatory country, refuses to sell uranium to non-signatories. India claims that the treaty is discriminatory because it recognizes as legitimate nuclear weapons states only those that tested nuclear devices before January 1967, which would disqualify it permanently. Australia’s leaders have historically ruled out doing the same until Delhi signed the treaty.
However, Australia’s position has eased, however, it agreed to allow exports in 2014, subject to the International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and separation of the Indian civilian and military nuclear programs. The final deal signed on Thursday is expected to remove the obstacles in implementing the earlier deal.
India is Australia’s fifth largest trading partner, with two-way trade in goods and services valued at 54.4 billion Australian dollars in financial year of 2024 and 2025. Australia is also looking to diversify its trade partners beyond its reliance on China.
