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Abbott said India and Australia were bound by “strongly convergent” trade and strategic interests on the last day of his visit, which culminated with the deal to supply uranium to the energy-hungry country.
During the meeting, PM Abbott gifted a ‘Nehru jacket’ made of Australian wool to PM Modi, who in return presented him a copy of the Gita.
India and Australia kick-started negotiations on uranium sales in 2012 after Canberra lifted a long-time ban on exporting the valuable ore to Delhi to meet its ambitious nuclear energy programme.
Australia, the world’s third biggest uranium producer, had previously ruled out such exports to nuclear-armed India because it has not signed the global non-proliferation treaty.
Both India and Pakistan are nuclear-armed, and along with Israel and North Korea are the only countries not signed up to the non-proliferation treaty to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons.
Read more at India and Australia seal nuclear deal, Abbott meets Modi
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