By DPA
Sydney : Australia would not sell to India the uranium it needs to fuel its nuclear reactors until New Delhi signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), officials said Tuesday.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, speaking after a meeting in Perth with Shyam Saran, special envoy of the Indian prime minister, said that the ruling Labor Party would implement the policy it followed while in opposition.
“We went into the election with a strong policy commitment we would not export uranium to nation states who are not members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,” Smith told reporters.
The government of former prime minister John Howard, which lost the November election, decided that it didn’t make sense to ban uranium exports to India when it had agreed to ship uranium to China.
Australia has 40 percent of the world’s known reserves of uranium and is the top exporter.