Australia’s Prime Minister Tony Abbott is in India from September 4 -5. This is Abbott’s first visit to India as Australian Prime Minister and he is also the first incoming head of state to meet Narendra Modi after the BJP-ruled coalition formed the government.
Tony Abbott is travelling with a 130-strong business delegation and is scheduled to visit Mumbai and New Delhi.
During the visit, Abbott will have delegation level talks with the Indian prime minister; he will call on President Pranab Mukherjee and will also meet the External Affairs Minister. The other elements of his programme will include a ceremonial reception in Rashtrapati Bhavan and interactions with the business community both in New Delhi and Mumbai.
The bilateral meet will see talks on trade, energy and defence co-operation. The bilateral trade currently stands at $21 billion with the balance in Australia’s favour. India-Australia have a strategic partnership in place and the dialogue will be an effort to enhance ties – especially in defence cooperation.
The highlight of Abbott’s visit is the expected signing of the India-Australia bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement which will allow for the export of Australian uranium to India. There have been five rounds of negotiations since 2012 and India will be the first non-Non Proliferation Treaty signatory to receive uranium from Australia after Canberra and New Delhi agreed on the final safeguards.
Australia had been one of the first countries to decry India’s nuclear tests in 1998 however the Australian Parliament overturned its long-standing ban on uranium sales to India following the landmark U.S. agreement to support India’s civil nuclear programme.