India’s energetic sector will receive uranium from Australia in order to cope with increasing demand of electric power, Australian media reported on Wednesday.

According to press reports, the Australian government agreed to sell uranium to India even if the country didn't sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The breakthrough was made by the United States who decided to cooperate with India and grant access to its technologies used for civilian purposes only, a path that was also followed by Australia.

Premier John Howard has previously said that a softer stance regarding countries with nuclear power like Indian or China should be adopted, Australia already exporting uranium to the Asian country since April last year.

“Certainly our policy to date has been to prohibit sales to countries which are not signatories to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

“But as time goes by, if India were to meet safeguard obligations, some Australians would see it as anomalous that we would sell uranium to China but not India,” Howard said. 

Australia has one of the vastest reserves of uranium in the world, occupying the top spot among exporters of the radioactive fuel. But the deal with India sparked controversy, opposition members saying this transaction undermines the NPT and the Howard government “is positively obstructive…when it comes to nuclear proliferation.”

Canberra officials took additional safety measures before agreeing to sale uranium to the South Asian nation, pressing for the separation of the nuclear programs in two distinct entities: one serving civilian purposes and another one for military use.