By IANS,
New Delhi : Australia Thursday repeated its stand of not supplying uranium to a non-nuclear non-proliferation treaty country like India, but indicated it was open to cooperating with New Delhi on dual use items.
Visiting Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said: “The Australian government policy is not to supply uranium to non-nuclear non-proliferation treaty countries. That policy approach is of long standing and well known.”
He added: “Our policy has also been, and remains, not to supply other items to non-entity signatories for use in nuclear programmes. This position remains unaffected by the NSG (Nuclear Suppliers’ Group) decision.”
But Smith said this also does not disturb Australia’s ongoing approach to consider, case by case basis, applications for the export of dual use items.
The 45-nation nuclear cartel Sep 6 took a historic decision to lift a global ban on nuclear trade with India that ended 34 years of New Delhi’s isolation and set the stage for sealing its landmark nuclear deal with the US.