Nuclear Proliferation Treaty

ABC TV Tuesday 14/8/07, Minister Downer said if any deal were to be struck for Australia selling uranium to India, it will be some time off. That “some time off” turned out to be Thursday 16/8/07. PM Howard says the deal will be a major economic and strategic advantage to both Australia and India. I bet it will, note the use of the word strategic.

While Australian nuclear sales are usually permitted only to signatories of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), India (a nuclear power) has been granted exemption to this condition, due to a deal it struck with the United States.

The US-India energy deal, will allow New Delhi access to U.S. civilian nuclear fuel and equipment for the first time in 30 years. Critics say the agreement will benefit India's military nuclear program and could entice other nations in the region to obtain nuclear weapons.

The pact provides India with permanent nuclear fuel supplies, but has sparked a raging debate in India over whether it enjoyed the right to test nuclear weapons. MPs from four Communist parties, who prop up the government in parliament, joined opposition law-makers in alleging that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave false information about the deal.

PM Singh told parliament that the deal would not curb India's right to test nuclear weapons, saying the government retained the "sovereign right to test and would do so if it is necessary in the national interest." The United States responded by warning that Washington reserves the right to ask for all of its fuel and technology back should India test another nuclear device.

Uproar in both the upper and lower houses of the Indian parliament forced its adjournment for the day on Thursday 16/8/07. Always the opportunist, Howard noting his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh had some down time, phoned to finalise Australia’s uranium deal. In the face of critique, Howard has allayed all of our fears by stating “there are safeguard agreements conditional on sales”, just like there are between the US and India.

ABC TV Friday 17/8/07, if my ears did not deceive me, Minister Downer exclaimed - India has no record of being a proliferator of nuclear materials, apart from having nuclear weapons. If I indeed heard correctly, the implications are startling – the first recorded instance of Alexander speaking a truth. I wonder though how many people hearing that, just said - Fair enough, they don’t proliferate apart from when they are proliferating.

The Minister of arrogance and elitism has also confirmed the Government's intentions to sign a uranium export deal with Russia. He hopes negotiations will be finalised at the APEC meeting next month when President Vladamir Putin visits Australia.