Antinuclear

Australia’s role in nuclear non proliferation means no uranium sales to India

The precedent set by nuclear trade with India increases the risk of other countries pulling out of the NPT, building nuclear weapons and doing so with the expectation that civil nuclear trade would continue.

Nuclear trade with India risks boosting arms race,  The West Australian, By Scott Ludlam  June 13th, 2011,  Australia’s long-standing policy to not sell uranium to nations refusing to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty must not change.

Nuclear trade with India would undermine the fundamental principle of the global non-proliferation regime – the principle that signatories to the NPT can engage in international nuclear trade for their civil nuclear programs while countries which remain outside the NPT are excluded from civil nuclear trade.

For decades, India has been invited to dismantle its nuclear weapons and join the NPT as a non-weapons state. It would then be free to participate in international civil nuclear trade.

Nuclear trade with India will also make it less likely that other non-NPT weapons states such as Israel and Pakistan will disarm and accede to the NPT.

Pakistan resents the selective support for India’s nuclear program and is well aware of the potential for the US-India deal and Australian uranium exports to facilitate an expansion of India’s arsenal of nuclear weapons.

The precedent set by nuclear trade with India increases the risk of other countries pulling out of the NPT, building nuclear weapons and doing so with the expectation that civil nuclear trade would continue.

According to WikiLeaks, Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson has told the US Embassy in Canberra that a deal to supply India with nuclear fuel could be reached within three to five years.

The minister should know that would be illegal. As a signatory to the Treaty of Rarotonga, we are obliged under Article IV to not provide source or special fissionable material or equipment to states without safeguards under the NPT. Arguing that India’s nuclear facilities will be brought under safeguards through nuclear trade is a case of one country negotiating its own tailored and selective safeguards regime

Nuclear trade with India risks boosting arms race – The West Australian

June 13, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, weapons and war