New Delhi
16 August 2007
Australia could send its own inspectors for checking Indian nuclear
plants to ensure proper use of the uranium it might supply, according to Australian
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.
"This will provide still more safeguards than we currently have," he told the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation. He sought to suggest that a bilateral safeguards arrangement,
in addition to a similar agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, would
help prevent the use of Australian uranium in the Indian nuclear weapons programme.
The chairman of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Mr Ziggy
Switkowski, went a step further to seek an Indian commitment to abandon nuclear testing
in future. He expected a ban on nuclear testing to be part of any cooperation between
India and Australia.
India will have to play by acceptable international rules if she wanted Australian
uranium, he was quoted as saying in the Herald Sun newspaper.
"To be allowed access in one case to American technology for new generation reactors
and to our high quality uranium you've got to be prepared to accommodate the rules that
govern reasonable international behaviour," Switkowski said. "I think continuing
weapons testing would compromise that kind of a situation. I think at that stage we have
to reverse out of the agreement in terms of supplying Australian uranium."
The statements by Mr Downer and Mr Switkowski come on a day when Australian Prime
Minister John Howard telephoned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to inform him of the
decision of the Australian Government regarding sale of uranium to India. The national
security committee of the Australian Cabinet on Tuesday decided in principle to export
uranium to India, conditional on agreed safeguards. Australia has the world's largest
known reserves of uranium.
The spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said: "The Prime Minister thanked
Prime Minister Howard. It was agreed that the matter would be discussed further at the
official level."
In Sydney, Mr Howard said that safeguards to prevent the use of the nuclear fuel in
weapons would be put in place. "Before effect is given to the in-principle decision we
have taken there'll also need to be a satisfactory finalisation of the negotiations between
India and the United States," he said.
The opposition Labour Party has demanded that the Australian Government immediately
review the pending decision to sell the uranium to India. Labour Party Foreign Affairs
Spokesman Robert McClelland said in Canberra: "The US State Department has now
made clear that the US-India agreement is off if India do go ahead with a nuclear
weapons test. So the foreign minister must immediately make clear whether the Howard
Government was prepared to take their proposed nuclear deal off the table if India
conducts nuclear weapons tests." The Indian Government, he said, won't rule out nuclear
testing and Australia has multiple international treaty obligations that the Government
should uphold. He added that Labour, if elected, would overturn any decision to sell
uranium to India and would lobby as a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) to
block such exports.
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