Global Security Newswire

Talks on sales of Australian uranium to India are due to begin this month, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

A March 19 meeting in New Delhi will be aimed at establishing a formal assurance that India would not direct purchased uranium toward its nuclear weapons program. An actual trade deal could take two years to complete, according to the newspaper, though an Australian Foreign Affairs and Trade Department representative said there was no set schedule for wrapping up negotiations.

Australia has to date only sold uranium to Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty member states. India holds 80 to 100 nuclear weapons outside the NPT regime. It says it needs uranium for its burgeoning atomic energy sector.

"We know how to negotiate these agreements because we have done it in the past and we have done it on the basis that Australian uranium is only used for peaceful purposes; that the International Atomic Energy Agency is involved in oversight, and that the nation that we sell uranium to has an appropriate protocol with the IAEA," Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said during a 2012 visit to the Indian capital.