Australia ready to supply uranium to India: Turnbull

new delhi — Australia said on Monday that it was ready to export uranium to India, nearly three years after the two countries signed an export deal for peaceful power generation.

At a joint news conference in New Delhi with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector, including renewable energy, was on the upswing.

Turnbull said Australia was looking forward to the first export of Australian uranium to India as soon as possible. “We have worked closely with India to meet our respective requirements for the provision of fuel for India’s civil nuclear programme,” he said.

India has more than 20 nuclear reactors in operation. Modi has promised to provide power to the entire country by 2019 and needs uranium imports to fuel India’s nuclear power plants.

India and Australia signed agreements on Monday on cooperating to combat international terrorism and transnational organised crime, as well as working together in areas such as the environment, climate and wildlife, and civil aviation security. Details were not immediately available. Turnbull said that two-way trade in goods and services last year was nearly $20 billion — more than double of what it was a decade ago.

He said, however, that it was a fraction of what it could and should be. “Now we are working with India to secure timely conclusion of a quality Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, which would provide a significant boost to regional confidence,” he said. —