Oz move will help India meet its power needs, says Krishna

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the international summit of Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), external affairs minister SM Krishna said the decision would enable India to meet its power requirements.

The Union minister said the decision taken by the Australian Government will only further strengthen the bilateral ties between India and Australia.

Earlier speaking to reporters on the issue of sale of uranium, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the  Australian prime minister wrote a letter to the Indian prime minister a day ago with contents that a proposal would be considered at the national conference of the ruling Labour Party to allow the sale of Australian uranium to India.

“This would be an important debate of the conference of the Australian Labour Party. On the one side of argument there are many passions. On the other side, there are concerns about strategic importance of India, as to how we strengthen our relationship,” said Kevin.

Elaborating, Kevin said, “Let me put the term this way. We recognise the significance of Indo-Australian  relationship.”

The Australian foreign minister said prime minister Jullia Gillard and he had overseen the upgradation of the relationship between Indian and Australia in 2009.

“Australia is conscious of the fact that India has an impeccable record of non-proliferating nuclear weapons and nuclear-related technologies,” said Rudd.

India and Australia
India has a strong bilateral trade relationship with Australia and the trade had crossed US$ 12 billion. Australia has been an important source for India for a number of items, including coal, gold products, investment and tourism. The two important nations of the IOR-ARC have a strong bilateral relationship because both are democratic and have similarity of views on international issues.

Unlike any other nuclear-capable nation, the international community never had any objection in supplying uranium for civic needs to India. The nuclear supplying group comprises 46 countries, which had unanimously taken a decision in September 2008 to have an India specific favour for a variety of reasons given the fact that India always  had an impeccable nuclear record, India’s growing energy needs and urge for a clean energy.