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ROUND THE WORLD
India & Australia
DIFFICULT PARTNERS
By Dr. Chintamani Mahapatra
(School of International Studies, JNU)
New Delhi, January 28, 2008
An international conference organized by the Indian
Association for the Study of Australia (IASA) in Kolkata last
week aimed at improving mutual understanding and forging
closer ties between India and Australia. Given the recent
blood-letting between the Indian and Australian cricket teams
in the ongoing series being played Down Under and the new
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision not to supply
uranium to India because it was not a signatory to the NPT,
overturning his predecessor’s John Howard’s policy.
Such conferences in the past, like the one in Pune, are
blessed by the respective Governments, if not directly
sponsored and supported by the Governmental agencies. This new
initiative to improve bilateral ties was first launched post
the Cold War as the Cold War dynamics put India and Australia
on opposing sides of the international political divide.
India championed the cause of Non-Alignment and incessantly
safeguarded this status even after forging closer security
ties with the former Soviet Union from the early 1970s.
Australia joined the American-led alliance system erected
against the Soviet Union. Hence, Australia maintained
considerable tactical distance from India with a perception
that New Delhi and Moscow were strategic allies for all
practical purposes.
The vast Indian Ocean served as a buffer rather than a water
connection between India and Australia. Canberra not only
maintained cordial and cooperative ties with New Delhi’s main
adversaries, Pakistan since the early Cold War days and with
China from the days of the Sino-US détente but it also became
a crusader against India’s nuclear programme.
The end of the Cold War, the decline of Pakistan’s strategic
relevance and the success of India’s economic reforms ignited
an interest in Canberra to re-examine its ties with New Delhi.
This resulted in several Australian initiatives to build a
range of positive structures of bilateral cooperation.
However, India’s decision to go nuclear and Australia’s
ongoing crusade against proliferation have posed a
considerable barrier since the late 1990s. Even as trade and
economic cooperation continued to grow, but the political
differences particularly on the nuclear issues prevented the
two countries from forging a kind of relationship that can be
characterized as strategic partnership.
Several developments since the early years of the 21st Century
induced Canberra to renew contacts with New Delhi with an aim
to boost mutual cooperation as well as improve images. First
was the path breaking visit of the US President Bill Clinton
to India. This visit was successful in giving a new direction
to US relations with India. From that time onwards, Indo-US
relations have shown an ascending line. The victory of a
Republican President, George Bush, the terrorist attacks on
the US and the impressive growth in India’s economic
performance further improved Indo-US ties to a point where the
two countries are marching ahead to cement a new strategic
partnership.
Second, India engaged all the major powers, such as France,
Britain, Germany, Russia Japan and even China in a series of
dialogues and unprecedented economic initiatives and soon came
to be regarded by all these powers as a fast emerging global
player.
Third, India was fast accepted as a new important player in
the politics and economics of the Asia Pacific region. India’s
elevation to the status of a Full Dialogue Partner of ASEAN,
membership in the ASEAN Regional Forum, its membership in the
East Asia Summit initiative to expand regional cooperation and
several other developments also cast its influence on
Canberra’s assessment of the emerging Indian profile.
Australia could not have ignored all these developments. It
would risk its own national interests by not doing enough to
boost ties with India. The Quadrilateral Initiative to
establish closer cooperation among the US, India, Japan and
Australia was the outcome of all these fast moving
developments.
However, one of the key areas that can over-heat
Indo-Australian differences is the nuclear issue. To start
with Australia is a member of almost all the international
non-proliferation regimes, such as the NPT, CTBT, Nuclear
Suppliers’ Group, Proliferation Security Initiative and
several others. But India for long has been the target of all
these regimes.
Two, Australia has been found to be quite critical of India’s
nuclear programme since the Pokharan nuclear test in 1974. To
the extent of Canberra leading the anti-New Delhi sentiments
relating to nuclear issues around the world. Three, successive
Australian Governments led by the Conservatives and the Labour
Party have failed to understand and appreciate the Indian
compulsions to go nuclear. Last but not least, New Delhi has
never engaged Canberra in a nuclear dialogue in a sustained
manner to build confidence or remove suspicions.
Additionally, the Indo-US nuclear deal has a direct impact on
the Australian position on nuclear cooperation with India.
Recall, the Conservative Government last year gave more than
decipherable hints indicating the possibility of uranium trade
with India. The Labour Party, on the other hand, has taken a
hard line stand on this issue. After winning the national
elections in the recent past, Canberra has made it clear that
it would not sell uranium to India.
The opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal in India is perhaps
responsible to an extent in making it difficult for New Delhi
to shop for nuclear fuel or even technology for its energy
programme. If India is not able to make up its mind and
develop a bipartisan understanding, other countries, such as
Australia cannot be blamed for the lack of consensus on
selling uranium to India.
Analyzed in a different perspective, if Australia’s
non-proliferation lobby continues to oppose uranium trade with
India after the deal with the United States is successfully
concluded, it would certainly serve as a major road-block in
bilateral relationship. As the nuclear deal has all the
potential to cement the emerging strategic ties with the US, a
uranium deal with Australia will most likely lead to a durable
strategic partnership with Canberra.
Moreover, the differences over the uranium issue would have
negative impact on India. Canberra is happily selling uranium
to China, a country that is certainly a member of the NPT,
unlike India, but is in no way stopping vertical
proliferation. The Australian double-standard will derail the
current trend in the fast improving relations between the two
nations.
Thus, Indo-Australian relationship will most likely be a
difficult partnership until the nuclear differences are
settled. ---- INFA
(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)
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