Describing India as an "emerging democratic superpower", Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott kicked off his two-day India visit during which the two countries are likely to clinch an elusive civil nuclear deal. Abbott is visiting New Delhi on Friday and is scheduled to hold talks with top Indian leadership in Delhi including President Pranab Mukherjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari, Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj tomorrow. A clutch of pacts in areas including mining, finance and education could be signed.
A big-ticket item on Abbott's agenda as he meets Narendra Modi on Friday eveningin thefor the national capital in the evening, however, would be a civil nuclear deal with India efforts for which have been underway since 2012 after Labor party reversed its decision to ban the sale of uranium to India because of New Delhi not being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"I am hoping to sign a nuclear co-operation agreement that will enable uranium sales by Australia to India," he told parliament on the eve of his visit to India. Abbott had 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", noting it was a "fully functioning democracy with the rule of law".
India is not a signatory to the NPT, but Abbott has stressed that Australia will ensure adequate bilateral safeguards before any deal is signed. After failure to conclude a civil nuclear deal with Japan during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to that country, if inked, the pact with Australia, which has about a third of the world's recoverable uranium resources and exports nearly 7,000 tonnes a year, would boost India's energy sector.
Abbott, the first Head of Government outside the leaders of SAARC nations to visit the country after the inauguration of the Narendra Modi government, said he wants to make the most of "an abundance of opportunities" for business in India.
".....this is a country which has amazed the world over the last few decades with its growth and its development – the world's second most populous country; on purchasing power terms, the world's third largest economy, clearly, the emerging democratic superpower of the world and a country with which Australia has long and warm ties.
"The purpose of this trip, as far as I am concerned, is to acknowledge the importance of India in the wider world, acknowledge the importance of India to Australia's future, to let the government and the people of India know what Australia has to offer India and the wider world for our part, and to build on those stronger foundations," he said addressing a 30-member business delegation accompanying him on the trip at Hotel Taj Palace in Mumbai on Thursday, his first port of call.
Noting how India has changed "enormously" since his last visit 33 years ago as a backpacker, Abbott, who has expressed keenness to sign a nuclear deal with the country, said," I can remember on my first day in Mumbai watching a bullock cart take material into a nuclear power station.
"Well, 33 years on, there aren't that many bullock carts left in urban India, and the power stations – the nuclear power stations – are more sophisticated than ever," he said.
Abbott said the Indian leader's call "come, make in India" is "close in spirit and in intent" to the phrase he had used in respect of Australia that "we are open for business".
With agency inputs.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}