Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard will visit India from 15-18 October to announce the ‘nuclear safeguards agreement,’ necessary for establishing uranium sales between India and Australia.
While in New Delhi, she will meet President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and the leader of the opposition, Sushma Swaraj.
“A civil nuclear pact is likely to be signed during the three-day visit of the Australian Prime Minister,” official sources stated.
Until last year, the Labour Party of Australia had imposed a ban on uranium sales to India because India is not a signatory to the ‘Non-Proliferation Treaty’ (NPT) – whose objective is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology.
In December 2011, Julia Gillard successfully overturned this ban, paving the way for the first Australian country-to-country agreement to sell yellow cake to a nation outside the NPT.
Apart from civil nuclear cooperation, ways to boost bilateral trade and other strategic issues are expected to be discussed during the visit of the Australian Prime Minister to India.
India is Australia’s fourth-largest export market, with total two-way trade valued at more than $20 billion.
India, which expects to have a nuclear capacity of 20,000 MW by 2020 and 63,000 MW by 2032, for its nuclear electricity programme, has been pushing for civil nuclear cooperation with Australia.
Home to 31% of the world’s known uranium sources, Australia is the world’s third-largest producer of uranium oxide concentrate, after Kazakhstan and Canada.
Additionally, Gillard is also expected to extend a fresh invitation to Singh to visit Australia. If the invitation gets accepted, Manmohan Singh will be the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Australia in 26 years.