India persuades Australia to lift uranium ban

India’s External Affairs Minister S M Krishna wants Australia to lift ban on uranium sales to India as the shift of power generation from traditional sources is needed to lower carbon emission and tackle climate change.

Krishna, who on Thursday met Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, said despite India’s test of an atomic weapon, the country could be trusted as a responsible nuclear power.

He said India had been insisting to the developed nations that energy-starved India needed support from them to switch over to nuclear fuel base energy to augment supplies for development and cut carbon emission.

Krishna arrived at the Royal Society of Victoria to attend 7th round of ministerial dialogue with his Australian counterpart.

Earlier, the visiting Indian minister told The Age that ?Climate change demands we aim at clean energy. It has been accepted by experts that nuclear power is the cleanest power, and India is committed to pursue its nuclear power expansion.”

” I think it is necessary that we engage Australia in a continuing dialogue about this question. Here is a situation where you are endowed with enormous deposits of uranium and there is a whole world which is starving for energy ? especially the developing countries, and more specifically India,? Krishna said.

He said India, a responsible nuclear powered country, had already struck nuclear technology agreements with the U.S., France, Canada and Argentina.

He said India’s growing economic, education and tourism ties with Australia were the ”springboard” for a more mature and strategic partnership in the future.

Krishna also lauded the Victorian government and police response to violence against Indians last year.

He also hit out at Pakistan, accusing it of supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan and providing a safe haven to the extremists.

Krishna said Pakistan continued to support the Taliban as its ally and a solution to the conflict could only be found once Pakistan abandoned its support to the insurgents.

Krishna on Wednesday held talks with Resources Minister Martin Ferguson on uranium sales and said he accepted Australia’s ban on uranium was not directed at India.

Australia has one of the world’s largest yellowcake deposits – the fuel for nuclear reactors – but refuses to export to countries that are not signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

He said India hoped to reach a 10 per cent economic growth rate in the coming year and the resulting explosion of energy needs would be met by moving away from coal-fired power stations.