Australia has agreed to sell uranium to India, ending a long stalemate that had persisted for more than a decade. The move marks a significant shift in Canberra’s non‑proliferation stance and comes at a time when India’s power demand is rising rapidly.

The announcement was made jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese in Melbourne.

The two leaders signed an administrative deal that finally enacts the 2014 agreement on uranium exports, which had been stalled due to concerns about potential weapons use.

Details of the volume of uranium to be supplied and the timeline for exports were not immediately disclosed. The earlier agreement had been held up because of apprehensions that uranium could be diverted for military purposes. Australia, despite possessing the world’s largest known uranium reserves, does not operate nuclear power plants or maintain nuclear weapons, exporting all of its uranium instead.

India, with a population of 1.4 billion and a rapidly expanding middle class, has set an ambitious target of installing 100 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity by 2047. This would be sufficient to power nearly 60 million homes annually. Although India has doubled its nuclear power capacity in the past decade, nuclear energy still accounts for only 3 percent of its electricity generation.

India is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non‑Proliferation Treaty, which recognises only five nuclear weapon states. New Delhi has long argued that the treaty is discriminatory, as it permanently excludes countries that tested nuclear devices after January 1967. Following its nuclear tests in 1998, India faced international sanctions and bans on uranium trade.

A breakthrough came in 2008 when the Nuclear Suppliers Group granted India a waiver, allowing it to purchase uranium from member states. Since then, India has pursued bilateral agreements, including a deal with Canada in March.

Australia had historically refused to sell uranium to non‑signatories of the treaty, but its position softened in 2014 when it agreed to exports under International Atomic Energy Agency safeguards and strict separation of civilian and military nuclear programs.

The new administrative agreement removes the final obstacles to implementing the earlier pact. It represents a major step forward in India’s quest for reliable uranium supplies to fuel its civilian nuclear energy program.

During the summit, Modi and Albanese also pledged to deepen defence and security cooperation in the Indo‑Pacific. Their joint statement described this as a “step‑change in the depth and ambition” of bilateral ties.

The announcement came shortly after Australia criticised China for test‑firing a long‑range ballistic missile from a nuclear‑powered submarine into the South Pacific, a region covered by an anti‑nuclear treaty.

Although neither leader mentioned China directly, the strengthening of strategic ties between India and Australia is widely seen as part of a broader effort to balance regional security dynamics. Thousands of people gathered in Melbourne to see Prime Minister Modi during his visit, underscoring the strong Indian diaspora presence in Australia.

India is currently Australia’s fifth‑largest trading partner, with two‑way trade in goods and services valued at 54.4 billion Australian dollars ($37.7 billion) in the 2024‑25 financial year.

PM Modi’s visit to Australia is part of a wider tour that included Indonesia, where he signed agreements on agriculture and defence, including the BrahMos missile system. He will travel to New Zealand next, marking his first official visit to the country since the signing of a free trade agreement in April.

This uranium deal not only strengthens India’s energy security but also signals a new phase in Indo‑Australian relations, combining economic, defence, and strategic cooperation in a rapidly evolving Indo‑Pacific landscape.

Agencies