New Delhi: The India-Australia partnership is going from strength to strength. A civil nuclear deal is expected to be signed by the two countries here on Friday, marking yet another significant step in their deepening strategic ties.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who began a two-day visit to India in Mumbai on Thursday, arrived in New Delhi late in the evening.
He is scheduled to hold delegation-level talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday evening. The big-ticket announcement is expected to be the signing of the nuclear agreement, that will enable the supply of much-needed uranium by Australia to India to help meet its energy needs.
On Thursday, Mr Abbott allay fears about India not being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, telling reporters in Mumbai that India had an “impeccable non-proliferation record” and has been a “model international citizen”, which “threatens no one”.
Mr Abbott added the proposed agreement indicated trust for the “world’s emerging democratic superpower”.
The Australian Prime Minister phrased the significance of his visit quite succinctly Thursday: “There is unrealised potential in the relationship that this visit will work to exploit.”
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who is in India on a two-day visit, signed 21 memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with the University of Mumbai at a function organised at the Convocation Hall on the Fort campus of the University on Thursday.
Mr Abbott also launched the New Colombo plan, which is an inter-governmental effort to strengthen economic and social development of member countries in the Asia-Pacific region and announced a $3 million funding for Melbourne university’s Australia India Institute, Australia’s only national centre of research and analysis on India.
