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Canada has signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with India which will bring Canadian nuclear technology and uranium to the South Asian nation for the first time since the 1974 ban.
Although India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), The Nuclear Supplier Group (NSG), of which Canada is a member, decided in 2008 to lift the over thirty-year moratorium on nuclear exports to India.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi this week, has expressed confidence in the South Asian nation's promise to ensure safety and security of their nuclear operations. "We believe Canada and India have a prosperous civilian nuclear future ahead of us. We also have great faith in our Indian friends and partners," said Prime Minister Harper. "We are not living in 1970s, we are living in 2009."
Earlier this year, Canada and India inked a memorandum of understanding that Canada would aid India its quest to construct up to 30 nuclear reactors. The new plants are expected to triple India's uranium demand in the next 15 years.
Other NSG member nations such as Russian, the US and France have also signed nuclear co-operation agreements with India since the ban was lifted. However, the Australian government under Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has remained resolute in its refusal to export uranium supplies to India until it signs the NPT.
This resolve and the latest nuclear agreement have really riled up the Liberal Party and its Deputy Leader/Foreign Affairs, Julie Bishop. Prior to the Liberal's loss to the Australian Labour Party, the party had agreed to allow uranium sale to India.
The crux of Bishop's beef is that the Canada-India nuclear agreement has seriously hampered Australia's economic growth. While Canada may be the world's biggest uranium exporter, Australia is home to the globe's biggest known reserves. And Bishop feels the Rudd government's refusal to reach an agreement with India has threatened the nation's opportunity to profit from those resources.
"India is a developing country with a large population with huge energy needs. Surely the best way that Rudd could assist India in meeting its energy needs would be to sell Australian uranium so that it could use low-emissions nuclear power," said Bishop.
"On the question of bilateral uranium sales, can I say that our policy remains governed by the provisions of the non-proliferation treaty that has been the case in the past. The non-proliferation treaty and our policy in relation to it as underpinning our attitude to uranium sales is not targeted at any individual country. It has been a long standing Australian government policy," said Rudd, who was in India Wednesday, and met with Prime Minister Singh.
The opposition Liberal Party feels the Rudd government is ignoring India's economic importance to Australia, but Rudd maintains that he is well aware of the significance of a trade alliance with the growing Indian economy.
"India is Australia's sixth largest trading partner and . . . its fastest growing market for Australian exports," says The Times of India. The nation also offers a plethora of business opportunities in sectors including natural resources, hospitality, energy, IT-education and green technology.
"There is much potential for the two countries to scale up trade exchanges not just in the services sector but in other areas as well," The Times urges.
But, is a nuclear co-operation agreement between Australia and India possible in the near future?
Business Standard reports that "highly placed Australian sources" have confided that Rudd's position may be an "evolving one." Insiders believe he may try reversing his party's resolution "around the time of the national elections in October 2010."
Before his meeting with Rudd this week, Singh reportedly said "We are ready when they are ready to sell uranium. We don't press the point."
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