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Australia to ‘negotiate’ uranium sale to India

SINGAPORE: Australia on Thursday expressed its willingness to sell uranium to India under “safeguards.” This follows the latest accord between India and the United States on the finer points of their civil nuclear energy cooperation.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said: “It is possible we will get into negotiations with India [for uranium sales].” The first step in this direction would be to “negotiate a nuclear safeguards agreement with India so that uranium exported to India could only be used in civil nuclear facilities.”

Addressing the “concerns” of the non-proliferation lobby in Canberra, he said: “We would never sell uranium to India for military purposes.”

Taking a positive view of India, at the same time, Mr. Downer said: “There is no reason to believe [that] of all the countries in the world that have nuclear power, including countries with nuclear weapons, India would behave irresponsibly.”

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