Prime Minister Tony Abbott is expected to sign off on an agreement that would allow Australia to sell uranium to India - potentially doubling overall exports to a billion dollars annually by 2018 - when he meets his counterpart Narendra Modi in Mumbai.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In question time on Wednesday, Mr Abbott said that he hoped the trip would strengthen Australia's trade relationship with India in areas including mining, finance and education, while signalling a deal was in the offing to sell uranium and help India meet soaring demand for electricity.
"I am hoping to sign a nuclear co-operation agreement that will enable uranium sales by Australia to India," he said.
Mr Abbott said on Tuesday that if Australia was prepared to sell uranium to Russia then "surely we ought to be prepared to provide uranium to India under suitable safeguards", pointing out it was a "fully functioning democracy with the rule of law".
India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, but Mr Abbott has stressed that Australia will ensure adequate safeguards, in the form of bilateral safeguards, before any deal is signed.
Mr Abbott also announced on Wednesday that Australia would no longer sell uranium to Russia.
But Greens leader Christine Milne lashed the prospect of a deal with India, describing Mr Abbott's approach to trade in uranium as cavalier.
And Greens senator Scott Ludlam said Mr Abbott should not open "a new line of atomic instability with India, which has refused to sign up to international legal agreements on non-proliferation and disarmament".
"We should be getting out of this industry rather than getting further in it."
Trade Minister Andrew Robb, who will accompany Mr Abbott on the trip, said earlier this week that after years of work on a bilateral nuclear co-operation agreement, government officials had satisfied themselves that "all the requirements have been met and we are in a position [to sign] if that's what comes about with the Prime Minister's visit".
Toro Energy chief executive Vanessa Guthrie, who will be on the trip as part of a 31 member business delegation and whose Wiluna project in Western Australia could become the first uranium mine in the West after receiving environmental approval last year, said the sector was anticipating the deal would be bilateral deal to allow sales would be signed.
"We are anticipating that the Prime Minister is getting ready to do this; we don't have confirmation at this point. It would be a similar agreement to what Canada currently has in place with India and other countries as well," she said.
"If we are able to open up Australian uranium sales, by 2018-19 when we have those projects currently approved [operating] - which is Kintyre [in WA] and Wiluna - if we are able to bring those well-developed projects into production in 2018 it could be worth about billion dollars export earnings. Today it is about half a billion dollars."
Australia currently has four uranium mines - Ranger in the Northern Territory as well as the Olympic Dam, Beverley and Four Mile mines in South Australia.
Ms Guthrie said such a deal would help bring power to the one third of India's population that doesn't have access to electricity, while also helping reduce carbon emissions in one of the world's most populous countries.
The uranium deal is tipped to be the centrepiece of Mr Abbott's trip, which will also see him travel to Malaysia to meet with Prime Minister Najib Razak.
Australia exports about 10,000 tonnes of uranium per year. India has 19 nuclear power plants, with another six under construction and about 20 more planned.
