Thursday, Apr 25, 2024 | Last Update : 05:54 AM IST
Australian PM to visit India, talks on key areas likely
It will instead see firming up of bilateral cooperation in security, trade and energy.
New Delhi: Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will begin a four-day visit to India on April 9.
Mr Turnbull, who will hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, had earlier said Australia will be a reliable provider of uranium, among other energy resources, to India.
Australia is in the process of exporting uranium, a precious nuclear fuel, to India, but the delayed economic pact between the two nations will reportedly not be signed during the visit.
It will instead see firming up of bilateral cooperation in security, trade and energy. External affairs ministry officials said that while Australia can now export uranium to India, commercial deals that factor in price and other aspects have to be negotiated. “The Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement will not be signed during this visit. Negotiations are underway but the pact will not be signed,” Australia’s high commissioner to India Harinder Sidhu was quoted by news agencies as saying.
The talks for CECA were launched in 2011, and during the visit of former Australian PM Tony Abbott in 2014, the two sides expressed hope that the pact would be inked by the end of 2015, a deadline which has already been missed.
