Interview - PM Program

MARK COLVIN: The Federal Government is insisting that Australia will not sell uranium to India.

Under the Howard Government, Australia and India have gone a long way towards beginning uranium exports, despite doubts about India's commitment to nuclear safeguards.

India is a nuclear weapons power and it has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But in a country of more than a billion people with nine per cent annual growth, energy demand is growing fast and the Indians argue that they need Australian's uranium for their power stations.

The Opposition has labelled the Federal Government's refusal to export uranium as hypocritical and an affront to the world's biggest democracy.

Australia's Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith is on a five day visit to India. He spoke to Edmund Roy.

STEPHEN SMITH: Well I've made it clear as I have from day one. We don't export uranium to a country who's not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. India is not a party to that.

I'm indicating of course that this is not a policy which is aimed at India, it's a policy which is a long standing party policy position and it is about countries who aren't party to the NPT.

But the two issues are separate in our eyes and I think it's true to say that the people I've met here were very pleased that so far as the nuclear supplier's group decision was concerned, that Australia adopted a positive and constructive approach.

The decision here has been seen very much in the context of India's rise, and India's rise as a great power is of course one of the reasons why I've been arguing that Australia needs to take its relationship with India to the front line of our international partnerships, we have to take our relationship with India to a new level.

REPORTER: If that is the case, does the Opposition and many in the Indian administration have a point when they say that Australia's position is hypocritical?

SMITH: Well we certainly don't regard it in that light, that's the first point. Secondly, the other point which I've made, which is a valid - in my view a very valid point, is that in any relationship between two nation's states there'll be some issues or things about which you don't necessarily agree entirely. That doesn't disturb or attack the fundamental basis or potential of the relationship. The Indian Government is very pleased and very happy at the approach that Australia took in the IAEA and the NSG. India's long standing position of not being a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty reflects our long standing position of not exporting uranium to a country who is not party to that treaty.

But if it's just one issue of a raft of strength in our relationship, Australia and India have a great deal in common. Shared values, shared virtues. India, of course, the largest parliamentary democracy and there is great economic complementarity in our two economies, not just in energy, but also in food, minerals resources. But we also now see that moving into other areas.

Australia is now, after the United States, the most popular destination for Indian students, so we've got a growing number of Indians coming to Australia as students. That's an unambiguously good thing.

And where I am at the moment in the south in Chennai, the economic activity and the economic relationship between Australia, particularly Western Australia and India is growing very, very quickly.

REPORTER: But just how much do you think this uranium - the question of uranium sales to India? How much will that hijack all that good stuff that you're talking about?

SMITH: Well I don't think it will hijack it at all. It'll be of interest to commentators because it coincides with the NSG decision. But in the end, in the long run, it'll be the fundamental underlining basis of the Australia/India relationship that will see us emerge. And I think there's agreement between Australia and India reflected by External Affairs Minister, Mukherjee's visit to Canberra in June by an exchange in the margins of the G8 between Prime Minister Rudd and Prime Minister Singh.

I think there's an understanding that both Australia and India want to take this relationship to a new level, to a new partnership. That's important, not just for our bilateral relationship, but what also we do regionally and globally. We're a very strong supporter of India's claim to be a permanent member of a reformed United Nations security council. We're a strong supporter of India becoming a member of APEC when the APEC membership moratorium ceases in 2010.

And recently India was a very strong supporter of Australia's ambition to become a dialogue partner of the south Asian association for regional cooperation which includes India and Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and a number of other countries, and that's a very important regional forum which Australia will now take part in for the first time from next year.

REPORTER: And finally, do you foresee a time when uranium sales to India from Australia will take place?

SMITH: Well I don't foresee a time where will change our policy position, which is we don't export uranium to a country that's not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

And just as our policy position on uranium exports is of long standing and well known, so is India's approach and attitude to it, India joining the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. And that's why I've also made the point here. I don't see much to be gained by me raising with India their membership of the NPT. Their policy position is of long standing and well known as is the Australian Government's position on the export of uranium.

COLVIN: The Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith speaking from the southern India city of Chennai to Edmund Roy.

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