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Australia’s security in S.E. Asia a sound reason for refusing to sell uranium to India

The arms control reasons for refusing uranium sales to India are serious. The first is the damage that could be done to the NPT system…..A second reason is that Australian uranium used for power generation could free other sources of uranium for use in Indian nuclear weapons, possibly fuelling a nuclear arms race with Pakistan..

We need to strengthen, not weaken, nuclear deterrent, Sydney Morning Herald, Andy Butfoy, January 21, 2011 Australia has a sovereign right to choose its customers. REPORTS that Delhi is pressuring Canberra to sell India uranium are predictable. The arguments for selling have been well rehearsed, and vested interests have long been encouraging Australia to cash in on the opportunities being dangled before it. But to understand why, one has to go beyond the spin produced by the Indian government and the nuclear industry….…in 1974, after years of saying it wanted nuclear technology only for civil purposes, India tested a nuclear bomb. The test was given the preposterous label of a “peaceful nuclear explosion”…..

Fast forward to the 1990s. The international community pushed for a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty prohibiting nuclear tests. Canberra said the ban was central to the nation’s interests and declared there were no excuses for any country to refuse to sign. However, India tried hard to kill the treaty.

Then in 1998, as if to rub salt into the issue, and apparently driven by chauvinistic domestic political pressures, India engaged in a series of nuclear tests, triggering counter tests by Pakistan.

Despite this, in 2005 the principle of allowing free access in nuclear trade only to NPT members was sold down the river by US president George W. Bush. Here Bush was heavily under the influence of his neoconservative associates…….

The neocons got their way and the NSG granted India an exemption from the rules of nuclear trading……….

The arms control reasons for refusing uranium sales to India are serious. The first is the damage that could be done to the NPT system. Already China is using the US-Indian deal as a precedent for expanding nuclear ties with Pakistan. And why not take the point further and sell uranium to Israel? Where would we draw the line? Where will this stretching and pulling leave the NPT?

A second reason is that Australian uranium used for power generation could free other sources of uranium for use in Indian nuclear weapons, possibly fuelling a nuclear arms race with Pakistan……….we need to strengthen, not weaken, the system designed to deal with the threat…..

We need to strengthen, not weaken, nuclear deterrent

January 21, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA, politics international, Uranium