JOURNALIST:
Prime Minister the Indian Prime Minister is going to ask you to sell uranium to India. What is your response going to be?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well we are interested in the agreement that's been struck between the United States and India. We do have a longstanding policy of only selling uranium to countries that are part of the NPT regime, but we will have a look at what the Americans have done and when we get a bit more information about that we'll further assess it. But I see the development between India and the United States as a very positive development and we have a very positive attitude toward India but it's something that we have to assess and we have a policy which we're not going to suddenly change just because the United States has entered into an agreement. But I'd be very happy to talk about the issue. Australia does have large supplies of uranium. We have some of the largest uranium deposits in the world and provided the rules are followed and the safeguards are met we are willing to sell. But we have to be satisfied about the safeguards.
JOURNALIST:
So are you saying it's possible, it's conceivable that there could be a circumstance?
PRIME MINISTER:
I'm not going to say anything other than what I have just said.
JOURNALIST:
But the US still changes the rules?
PRIME MINISTER:
I beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
The US deal changes the rules?
PRIME MINISTER:
I haven't said that.
JOURNALIST:
Are you concerned Prime Minister that the US deal might undermine the strength of the NPT and its credibility in the international question of where uranium is sent?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's important for us all to get a bit more information about the deal. It hasn't been explained in total detail and the Indian Government is under some constraint because of its obligation to report to Parliament. And of course, the deal from the American point of view has to go through Congress, so I think we're just running ahead of ourselves a bit. Let's digest exactly what the Americans and the Indians have agreed to. I welcome the fact that for the first time, a lot of India's nuclear capacity is going to be subjected to international inspection. So that's certainly a big step forward. That doesn't happen now, and it's a very big step forward.
JOURNALIST:
Why would this change Australian policy Mr Howard?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I haven't said anything's going to change. What I have said is that we're going to analyse it, but we're not going to automatically change because the Americans have.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, on the broader trade front, what do you hope to achieve and what advances can be made?
PRIME MINISTER:
Well there are enormous opportunities for Australian business, for Australian exports. India is hungry for energy, but it's not just an energy relationship. India is now the second largest source of students in Australian tertiary institutions. In the last few years, exports to India have grown at a faster rate than exports from Australia to any of the other 30 countries which are our top export destinations. So there's obviously an enormous opportunity, a great opportunity.
JOURNALIST:
Do you think there are sensitivities with China though over the whole deal between the US and India on the nuclear agreement?
PRIME MINISTER:
Sensitivities with China?
JOURNALIST:
Yeah. As far as Australia is concerned.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well I don't think Australia should ever make decisions in relation to these things just on the basis of we don't want to do something that might upset somebody else. We have a good relationship with China. That hasn't stopped us having the closest relationship we've probably ever had with the United States and the same thing applies with India. I look at each of these countries in a separate light and there's a bilateral relationship to be had between Australia and India just as there was between China and Australia. India, as the Prime Minister has said to me, and I think I have said before publicly, India and Australia have a lot in common but perhaps we haven't had much to do with each other over the last 10 or 20 years and one of the purposes of this trip is to change that.
JOURNALIST:
Have we ignored India do you think?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't think we've ignored India. I think it's just a force of circumstances and events.
JOURNALIST:
Undervalued the friendship?
PRIME MINISTER:
Beg your pardon?
JOURNALIST:
Undervalued the friendship?
PRIME MINISTER:
No, I don't think that's the case. I mean on a people to people basis it's very strong. There are 150,000 Australians of Indian descent. There are a lot of Indian-descent people living in my own electorate, generally from the subcontinent as well. So I don't think we've undervalued the friendship, I just think that the commercial relationship hasn't been as strong, for a whole combination of reasons. India has tended to get her energy from the Middle East whereas Japan and China and Korea have tended to get a lot more of it from Australia. Now we're very happy, well the Australian companies are, it's for them to decide the terms and conditions. We're just a modest, hardworking facilitator, the Government.
JOURNALIST:
Mr Howard, you're signing an aviation agreement tomorrow. What's the practical impact of that?
PRIME MINISTER:
Oh I think the practical impact of that will be to further expand the opportunities for travel, for business exchange and it's just one of the things you do when the relationship is going up and not marking time. I mean this relationship is certainly taking off and India is growing very rapidly and the Indian presence is something that everybody must factor in and take account of and deal with.
Thank you.
[ends]