DC Edit | Uranium Deal Icing On Cake Of Modi’s Visit To Australia

Securing an agreement for supply of Australian uranium to fuel India’s nuclear power programme was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prize catch on his eastern trip to the Antipodes. The landmark deal should open the way to give a new impetus to India’s clean energy objectives, the plans for which have either lain dormant or moved at snail’s pace for over the 12 years since India and Australia had agreed in 2014 on a civil nuclear cooperation pact.

Australia’s preparedness to get its miners to enhance their operations to fulfil India’s large order for nuclear fuel to energise its green ambitions as well as steer away from fossil fuels a little more drastically because of current uncertainties over crude oil supplies and their carbon footprint also sends a message to the world on India as a reliable user of uranium for peaceful purposes.

The ground realities changed in the years since 2014 as the regulations over culpability and compensation in the event of a nuclear accident were altered in the ‘Shanti Act’ of 2025, limiting liabilities to international standards. In those 12 years, much may have been said about selling nuclear fuel but the uranium never came from Down Under. Against a planned nuclear power generation of 100GW by 2047 (22.5GW by 2032), India’s current installed capacity is just 8.8GW from 25 plants that generate only around three per cent of the nation’s power consumption.

As Australian Prime Minister Antony Albanese pointed out, the pre-2014 bilateral ties — and perhaps the ties in the last 12 years — were “underdone” and it is only now that India appears to have moved up the international order to be considered a crucial strategic partner, if not quite an ally though both countries are fellow members in Quad. The nuclear deal caps this new effort to further ties and take the bilateral aspects further regardless of divergent views on China, the country that is invariably the elephant in the room at every major diplomatic meeting.

As Prime Minister Modi vibrantly pointed out, the Indo-Pacific is not just the confluence of two great oceans, it also symbolises shared concerns over maritime security in view of the current geostrategic fears and suspicions. An array of pacts with Indonesia as well as Australia are set to operationalise closer cooperation in maritime matters in which India’s role as a facilitator and coordinator of data sharing has been rising.

The other great worry emanating from recent geopolitical shifts in the wake of US trade moves has been in the field of critical minerals and India’s search for reliable supply chains is spurred by events after China clamped up supplies. And Australia may be well placed with the capacity to supply many materials from its Critical Minerals List. With the nations kicking on towards a fuller ECTA by building on the interim deal of 2022, India may also be hoping to reduce the trade deficit with Australia.

With investments to begin flowing in — an Australian pension fund is taking a $346 million punt on India’s infrastructure fund and New Zealand mulls earmarking an ambitious $20 billion — the importance of pitching India internationally is stressed. Prime ministerial visits carry a lot more significance than the civilian awards that Mr Modi is adorned with but which are a recognition of India’s global heft today.