Billions of dollars’ worth of Australian uranium will be exported to India after Prime Ministers Anthony Albanese and Narendra Modi signed series of agreements including closer cooperation on defence.
“Today we can confirm the signing of the administrative arrangement to enable uranium exports to India for peaceful purposes under the 2015 Australia-India nuclear co-operation agreement,” Mr Albanese said.
“The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help increase the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity, providing an additional market for the Australian resources sector.”
Amid growing military tensions in the Indo-Pacific sparked by China’s military rise, Mr Albanese also praised India as a “top tier security partner”.
“Australia’s relationship with India has never been more consequential than it is today,” Mr Albanese said, standing alongside Mr Modi at Victoria’s Government House.
“With new landmark agreements, we are expanding our relationship across defence and security, education, science and technology, and energy security and critical minerals.”
The uranium agreement struck on Thursday is the culmination of more than a decade of negotiations, including over safeguards to ensure the material can’t be used for nuclear weapons.
The two countries signed an initial nuclear co-operation pact in 2014, soon after Mr Modi became prime minister.
Mr Modi also declared the bi-lateral relationship between both nations had reached “new heights” following the formal meeting between the leaders in Melbourne.
“We have signed an important agreement today on nuclear energy. This will pave the way for uranium supplies from Australia to India and give our clean energy objectives fresh momentum,” the Indian leader said.
“We also believe that the tensions and wars across various parts of the world can only be resolved through dialogue and diplomacy.
“In the entire Indo-Pacific region we will together bring peace, stability, freedom of navigation and a rules-based order in the entire region.”
In a statement the Albanese Government said Australia and India would “boost strategic coordination, increase the complexity of our defence exercises and further build interoperability between our defence forces”.
“We undertake to consult on defence-related developments in the Indo-Pacific that affect shared interests,” it said. “Maritime security is where Australia and India’s geography and security interests most strongly align and intersect.”
Speaking in Perth, the Federal Resources Minister Madeline King would not be drawn on whether a ban on establishing new uranium mines in Western Australia would soon have to be lifted.
“I’ll just say it’s a good outcome for an ongoing relationship with India, and it’s a really important part of India’s pathway to net zero to use uranium,” she said.
“And that’s a country with 1.3 billion people with a prime minister that, under his leadership, has enabled millions more people to have access to more energy, and Prime Minister Modi is to be congratulated for that.”
Australia is believed to possess almost a third of the world’s uranium reserves, but Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable warned the new agreement with India would require new mines to be developed beyond Australia’s existing four operations.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge claimed Australia’s new deal with India heightened the global nuclear risk by allowing India to expand its growing cache of weapons, while undermining Labor’s claims that the agreement will promote peace.
Earlier in the day at a business event, Mr Albanese credited his counterpart and Australia’s vast Indian diaspora for the growing economic ties.
“Prime Minister Modi, your leadership and your personal engagement with Australia has played a pivotal part in this,” Mr Albanese said.
Mr Albanese was due to attend a celebration on Thursday night of the Indian Prime Minister’s arrival that is expected to attract tens of thousands of people to Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium, similar to a Sydney event during his last visit in 2023.
On Wednesday evening, right-wing activist Hugo Lennon, also known on social media as “Auspill’’, was removed from Melbourne’s Sofitel hotel by police after screaming “f..k Modi, f..k India” as the world leader walked through the lobby following his arrival.
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