India-Australia Announced Nuclear Deal Negotiation

India and Australia on 17 October 2012 announced the launch of nuclear negotiations for a civil nuclear deal that will enable the sale of uranium from Australian Capital city Canberra to New Delhi.

The deal was announced by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard on her visit to India. The deal is going to provide stretch in India's civilian nuclear ambitions and will also strengthen bilateral ties between both the Countries.

Earlier in 2011, the Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Australian Labour Party refused to sell uranium to India by specifying that India had not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The actual Supply of uranium is going to take couple of years as negotiations for the safeguards agreement are complex and lengthy.

Both the Countries also signed four memorandum, the most important of which is agreement on Student mobility and welfare in which they agreed to hold annual meetings at the summit level either bilaterally or during multilateral events.

The other memorandums are:

• Memorandum on Military and Security Initiative committed to enhance maritime cooperation
• Memorandum to develop a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement

India and Australia also agreed to launch a Ministerial-level Dialogue on Energy Security, establish a Water Technology Partnership and start negotiations for an Agreement on Transfer of Sentenced Persons.