Australia's ruling Labour Party today voted to overturn a decades-old ban on uranium sale to India, paving the way for Canberra to supply yellowcake to a nation outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Delegates at the 46th national conference of the Labour in Sydney endorsed the Prime Minister, Ms Julia Gillard's plan to export uranium to India, with 206 of them voting in favour and 185 against. Ms Gillard, while moving a motion to change the party's policy on the issue, said that clearing the move would boost trade and enhance Australia's ties with India.
“We are at the right time in the history of the world to seize a new era of opportunity in this, the Asian century,” she said.
“We need to make sure that across our regions we have the strongest possible relationships we can, including with the world's largest democracy, India,” she said.
Australia has almost 40 per cent of the world's known uranium reserves but has not been supplying to non-NPT signatories.