Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said Australia will begin exporting uranium to India “as soon as possible”.
After holding high level bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during which both sides agreed to deepen cooperation in defence and security as well as in education, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Australia will begin exporting uranium to India “as soon as possible”.
“We’ve worked closely with India to meet our respective requirements for the provision of fuel for India’s civil nuclear programme, and we look forward to the first export of Australian uranium to India as soon as possible,” Turnbull said in his media statement after holding bilateral talks with Modi.
Modi, in his statement, said with the passing of legislation in the Australian Parliament with bipartisan support, Australia is “now ready to export uranium to India”.
The joint statement said India welcomed the passage of the Civil Nuclear Transfers to India Act by the Australian Parliament, which could ensure commercial exports of Australian uranium begins soon.
In September 2014, India and Australia signed a Civil Nuclear Agreement for Australian supply of uranium to India.
In December last year, the Australian Parliament passed a law to allow the supply of uranium to India. The commercial deals for the supply of uranium are being further negotiated.
Turnbull also said his country was “pleased to be providing increasing quantities of high quality coal for steel making and increasingly for power generation with advanced super critical technology”.
The two sides signed six MoUs, including on cooperation in fighting international terrorism and on civil aviation security.
–IANS