BRUNEI: The issue of uranium sale to India from Australia may figure in discussions when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets his new Australian counterpart Tony Abbott here tomorrow on the sidelines of East Asia Summit.
Singh, who arrived here today for 11th ASEAN-India summit, would also meet leaders of various other countries on the sidelines of the summit and attend the East Asia Summit as well tomorrow.
East Asia Summit is a forum for co-operation between various countries of this region with ASEAN and includes Australia, China, India, Japan, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Russia and the US, in addition to the ten ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) countries.
Official sources said that the issue of uranium sale may come up for discussion during Singh’s meeting with Abbott here tomorrow.
While maintaining that all issues can not be covered during this meeting, which would be the first between the two leaders, they said that uranium issue could still be very high on agenda.
“The new government in Australia has said they would be happy to schedule a meeting on uranium matter relatively very soon and therefore the issue could be deliberated upon during this meeting,” they added.
“While finer details might not be discussed, the initial issues must be talked about there,” sources said.
If the two nations go ahead with the deal, India will be the first customer of Australia that is not a signatory to the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Australia holds about a third of the world’s recoverable uranium resources, and exports nearly 7,000 tonnes a year. -PTI
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