Adopting a fresh approach, an international panel expert report has indicated Australia could give India access to its uranium provided “equivalent disciplines” were applied to help meet disarmament obligations.
According to latest media reports here on Wednesday, Australia could drop its ban on selling uranium to India after a report commissioned by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Japanese counterpart recommended changes to the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
The report suggested that three nations not covered by NPT treaty — India, Pakistan and Israel — should sign up to “parallel instruments” designed to ensure they do not divert civilian nuclear materials to military use that will pave the way for them to access uranium and other nuclear materials and technology.
Suggestions in International Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament report — released by Japan’s Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama on Tuesday — could resolve this impasse, the report said.
The report said the reality is that India, Pakistan and Israel would not sign up to the treaty and this meant “every effort should be made to achieve their participation in parallel instruments and arrangements which apply equivalent non-proliferation and disarmament obligations“.
“Provided they satisfy a strong objective criteria demonstrating commitment to disarmament and non-proliferation...these states should have access to nuclear materials and technology for civilian purposes on the same basis as an NPT member,” the report said.
