June 24, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 19, 1429

CANBERRA, June 23: India accepts the fact that it cannot buy uranium from Australia without signing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, the Indian foreign minister said on Monday during a visit to Australia.

Pranab Mukherjee said, however, that his government wants to learn more about Australia’s proposal for an international committee to recommend changes to the 28-year-old treaty.

Mukherjee said after meeting Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith that he did not come to Australia to try to change the ruling Labour Party’s policy on uranium sales.

“We are aware of the position of the Labour Party in Australia,” he told journalists at a joint news conference with Smith. “Australia’s commitment to non-proliferation is firm and we respect that.”

Despite their differences on the uranium issue, both ministers declared their commitments to developing closer relations between their countries. They said they hoped to complete a feasibility study on the potential for a free trade agreement this year.“There may be divergences of views in certain areas, but that divergence of views need not stand in the way of convergence of mutual interests and expanding on that,” Mukherjee said.

In August last year, the former Australian government began negotiating a uranium trade pact with India to help fuel India’s burgeoning need for energy.

Those negotiations marked a major policy shift for Australia, which demands that all its uranium customers ratify the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and ensure that radioactive material is not put to military use or passed to a third country.—AP