Australia decides to sell uranium to India

Scubascott

Woo Hoo! Bring it on! Just think of all that money. It'll do wonders for our economy. And everybody knows that the economy is the most important consideration when running a country.

Don't worry Pakistan. They won't use it make nukes. They promised. Now that they're getting all they need for their powerplants from us, they'll have plenty of spare stuff from other sources to do that with. And back in Australia we can all sleep at night knowing that our uranium would never be used for evil purposes. Sounds like the perfect deal to me.

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,23636,22260304-31037,00.html

PRIME Minister John Howard says strict safeguards on Australian uranium exported to India will prevent it being used in nuclear weapons.

Mr Howard last night reached an in-principle agreement with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh, despite India being one of only four countries not to have signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

Labor has promised to scrap the agreement if it wins this year's federal election.

But Mr Howard said the safeguards on the agreement would have the same effect as signing the NPT.

"I can assure your listeners that the net effect of our safeguards agreement will be the same,'' Mr Howard told ABC radio today.

"It's a different approach and India has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But we believe that these arrangements will deliver effectively the same outcome.''

Mr Howard said both countries would enter a bilateral safeguards agreement, and India would have to enter a similar agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

"And the sort of conditions that are going to be imposed on India are the same as the conditions that are being imposed on countries like China and Russia and I think also France ... and we've been selling uranium to France for many many years,'' he said.

"I spoke to the Indian prime minister last night and I went through all of the conditions, and I'm writing to him over the next few days to confirm that and the agreement is subject to all of those conditions being met.''

Australia is a major producer of uranium, with some of the world's largest known deposits in South Australia.

Mr Howard said he had not heard from South Australian Premier Mike Rann about the Indian deal.

But he said federal Labor's uranium policy was not in SA's interests.

"The federal Labor party is totally opposed to selling uranium to India, so irrespective of what Mr Rann says, a federal Labor government will act against the interest of South Australia on that issue,'' Mr Howard said.

South Australia and Queensland will be key states in the coming federal election, with Labor hoping to win several key marginal seats from the government.

catefrances

but they promise not to use it for evil.

LMFAO!!!

yep sounds perfect to me too scott. :rolleyes:

well if the safeguards are the same as signing the non proliferation agreement then why not get the indians to sign the NP agreement. and may i ask WHY india won't sign? can anyone spell hypocrite? it astounds me the speed at which howard is working this year. so glad melanie got married otherwise he'd sell her off to the highest bidder.