Uranium deal brings Australia closer to India and Japan, but not China
Bringing India into Australia’s nuclear family, SMH, Mark Kenny 5 Sept 14
“………Energy policy is another great challenge, which brings us back to Abbott’s visit. The tangible – yet officially unconfirmed – mission here is commercial – to sign an inter-country safe-guards agreement removing the last impediments to Australian uranium sales to India. Insiders say it could also to facilitate direct Indian investment in what might otherwise be marginal uranium mines in Australia.
The trade is something John Howard wanted and Julia Gillard got moving on decisively in 2012. And it is a circle the pro-nuclear Abbott is more than happy to square notwithstanding India’s refusal to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
For Abbott and Modi, whose popularity is also tied up in nationalism, the uranium agreement fits a broader narrative. Modi just returned from a five-day visit to Japan for talks with Abbott’s close ally, Shinzo Abe…….
When he nominated Japan as Australia’s best friend in Asia, it was on the basis of its westernised liberal-democratic values – the contradistinction with China was left unsaid.
One imagines the same logic is underpinning the new bilateral relationship Abbott wants to forge with India. http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/bringing-india-into-australias-nuclear-family-20140904-10c655.html#ixzz3CZNGY23g
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