Antinuclear

Former IAEA chief condemns suggestion of Australian uranium sales to India

 “Delegates to the Labor National Conference should heed Mr Walker’s warning. Uranium sales to India – a rogue nuclear state – will feed the dangerous nuclear arms race in South Asia. Moreover they would increase uranium export revenue by just two percent and would generate very few if any jobs.”

FORMER IAEA CHIEF DROPS NUCLEAR BOMB ON GILLARD, Dr Jim Green, 21 Nov 11, Friends of the Earth (FoE) has welcomed the strong warning against uranium sales to India by Australian Ron Walker, former Chair of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In an article published by the Lowy Institute on Friday, Mr Walker states: “Yes, India is a democracy and yes we want to be in their good books, but that is no reason to drop our principles and our interests. To make an exception for them would be crass cronyism. If you make exceptions to your rules for your mates, you weaken your ability to apply them to everyone else. How could we be harder on Japan and South Korea if they acquired nuclear weapons? Could we say Israel is less of a
mate than India?”

He further states: “I am horrified that the media have not explained the enormity of this proposal. Perhaps even the public service has been so degraded, marginalised and cowed that the prime minister has not beentold of the far-reaching consequences.” Mr Walker’s article is posted at:
http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2011/11/18/Uranium-Were-selling-out-our-principles.aspx
Mr Walker is a Visiting Fellow at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy
at the ANU and a Senior Special Fellow of the United Nations Institute
for Training and Research. He was an Australian diplomat for 37 years
and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic
Energy Agency in 1993-94.

Mr Walker’s comments echo similar concerns expressed by nonproliferation
experts and former US government officials who wrote to Congress in 2006
arguing that the US-India nuclear cooperation agreement would violate
the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
http://www.armscontrol.org/pdf/20060620_Letter_to_Congress.pdf

FoE’s national nuclear campaigner Dr Jim Green, author of a detailed
briefing paper on nuclear trade with India, said: “Delegates to the
Labor National Conference should heed Mr Walker’s warning. Uranium sales
to India – a rogue nuclear state – will feed the dangerous nuclear arms
race in South Asia. Moreover they would increase uranium export revenue
by just two percent and would generate very few if any jobs.”

November 21, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | General News