Australia's refusal to sell uranium to India till it signed the Non-Proliferation treaty (NPT) was not India-specific as the ruling Labour Party was against selling uranium to non-signatories of NPT, Australian High Commissioner to India John McCarthy said in Chennai on Tuesday. He told reporters that such a policy-not to sell uranium to countries, which had not signed the NPT-was a ‘platform’ of the Labour Party. "The Labour Party is against selling uranium to non-signatories of the NPT and recent refusal to sell it to India was not at all aimed at India alone. "The issue is only one of the aspects of the relationship between the two countries," McCarthy said while visiting a NGO, Mithra Foundation, in Chennai. "This policy (on the sale of uranium) is embedded in the Labour Party doctrine and it is typical of a government to take decisions based on its platform," the envoy said. While the country was ‘concerned about nuclear use,’ part of the nation's mood in this regard was determined by the nuclear tests conducted by France and England in the Pacific Ocean a few decades ago, he added. Australia has the largest reserves of uranium in the world and is also a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had recently announced that Australia would not sell uranium to India since it was a non-signatory to the NPT. He had also announced the formation of a Nuclear Non-Proliferations and Disarmaments Commission, a non-government body, and ruled out supply of uranium to India even if it joined it.
