With Australias ruling Labor Party voting on Sunday to allow sale of uranium to India,a longstanding obstacle in bilateral relations has been removed. Australia has 40 per cent of the worlds uranium and while shares of Australian uranium companies gained after the vote,Delhi and Canberra must first thrash out a nuclear safeguards agreement before sales can actually begin. Nonetheless,the vote removes a lingering irritant in India-Australia relations,with Delhi making it clear,especially after the Nuclear Suppliers Group waiver in 2008,that the ban obstructed mutual trust in bilateral ties. Therefore,the vote is likely to be a gamechanger in bilateral ties. That it was a high-risk move by Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard is evident from the final tally: 206 in favour,185 against. In pursuance of an end to the ban,Canberra has had to tackle a robust consensus among Australians on non-proliferation as an article of faith,a process begun by the previous conservative government of John Howard. The Gillard governments room for manoeuvre has,however,been limited by Labors requirement that its delegates clear major policy decisions by its government. Indeed,while the close vote showed the depth of challenge to Gillard among her ministers,in Australias political spectrum the resistance against uranium sales to India is packed in the Labors left fringes and the consensus on this gamechanger is likely to hold. It is interesting that a strong part of Gillards pitch at the party convention was the argument that it is not rational that Australia sells uranium to China and not India. The reference was a call to her party to heed the new Asian order,and it should compel Delhi to think of India-Australia ties beyond the nuclear prism and craft a robust strategic relationship. With its recent decision to host US marines on its soil,Australia has invited Asian countries to confront the changing regional balance of power. Delhi must begin its response by signalling an end to its longstanding political neglect of Australia.
