Canberra: An Australian nuclear expert Dr Ziggy Switkowski said that Australia will have to consider selling uranium to Pakistan in the future after agreeing to export it to India.
According to Australian daily The Australian, Dr Switkowski, a nuclear physisist and former head of the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, said Pakistan wasn’t yet ready to be considered as a buyer of Australian uranium.
But he said that “down the line that will need to be considered”.
“Pakistan is handicapped by its less than impressive history in the whole nuclear space, having traded nuclear secrets to unstable regimes, in Iran, in Libya and North Korea,” he said.
“It also has a miniscule civilian nuclear power program – I think they have two reactors.
“So, at this stage it is very much a hypothetical.
“But over time, as they gain the confidence of the international community and the civilian nuclear program builds, they will need to be considered.”
Earlier, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Australia, Abdul Malik Abdullah said if Australia is willing to export uranium to India then it should sell it to Pakistan as well.
Abdullah said, “If Australia is going to lift the ban on a country which has not signed NPT (Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) it is much hoped that will also apply to Pakistan the same way.”
Australia’s ruling Labour Party yesterday voted to overturn a decades-old ban on uranium sale to India, paving the way for Canberra to supply yellowcake to a nation outside the NPT.
Abdullah said Pakistan has not made a request to buy Australian uranium but this could change in the future.
“In that case we will hope that we will also be treated at par with other non-NPT signatories,” he said.
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