00:05While everyone watched this clip from PM Modi's visit to Australia,
00:09this major India-Australia uranium deal got buried under the headlines.
00:13Watch this video till the end because this isn't just another trade deal.
00:16For years, Australia, which holds around 30% of the world's uranium,
00:19had refused to sell it to India. After India's 1998 nuclear tests,
00:23Australia strongly condemned the move and stuck to a policy of refusing uranium sales to India.
00:28It does not supply uranium to countries that have not signed the non-proliferation treaty.
00:33India has not signed the NPT and argued that it's discriminatory,
00:37as it allows only countries that tested nuclear weapons before 1967 to keep them.
00:41The 2008 India-US nuclear deal opened a new door for India.
00:45It allowed India to engage in civilian nuclear trade.
00:47But Australia still refused to sell uranium to India.
00:51Many Australian politicians backed the ban.
00:53But in 2011, Australian Prime Minister Julia Jalert pushed to overturn it
00:57and the ban was soon lifted.
00:59In 2014, the two sides signed the agreement.
01:01But exports were still held by administrative steps.
01:04It was only in July 2026 that those final hurdles were cleared.
01:08So India imports the majority of its energy.
01:10And this uranium could help India make its own energy.
01:13Look at countries like France.
01:14Energy deficient in the sense that it would have to import a lot of its energy,
01:18whether it's coal or oil.
01:20But it chose to go down the nuclear path.
01:23And today, France is the country with one of the highest energy mix.
01:26Australia's uranium exports to India are meant for peaceful, civil in use.
01:30But defence experts note that this could still matter strategically.
01:33By meeting India's civil reactor needs with imported uranium,
01:36more of its domestic uranium may be preserved for its military programme.
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