India's uranium diplomacy with Australia

This article is authored by Jajati K Pattnaik and Chandan Panda.

India and Australia finalised a historic uranium deal on July 9, 2026. It is the centrepiece of all the 19 total bilateral agreements signed between the two countries during the Melbourne Summit. As per the deal, Australia exports uranium to India. Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi of India and PM Anthony Albanese of Australia inked the agreement in Melbourne during the India-Australia Annual Summit. The deal commercialises uranium export. The civil use of uranium is an important initiative to help India achieve its clean energy goals. Australia houses nearly one-third of the world’s uranium. It is a country with rich uranium deposits. Indian diplomacy has moved well beyond its traditional cautious approach. Hesitation or risk-averse diplomacy does not provide rich dividends. Australia refused to export uranium for decades, but finally signed the agreement, marking the success of Indian diplomacy and the growing interdependence between the two countries.

Law

India is a responsible nuclear nation. It believes in trust-building, peace, cooperation, and mutual success. Its civilian nuclear plants are under International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards. Australia signed a civil nuclear deal in 2014. It marked the policy shift from banning to agreeing to collaborate on uranium energy. Issues related to monitoring and other bottlenecks were finally resolved, and an agreement on uranium exports was signed. Indian private companies will soon operationalise commercial sales. This deal came at a very important time when the Hormuz dilemma raised concerns regarding energy supplies from the Gulf. The US-Iran treaty is making little headway and developments along the Hormuz do not seem to be improving. Iran's weaponisation of the Hormuz transit routes continues. Given these critical geopolitical developments regarding energy transit routes, India needed to seek alternative energy sources beyond solar and battery technologies.

India has not made much headway in nuclear energy. Many developed countries have been using uranium as commercial nuclear energy. Around 10% of the world's energy requirement is sourced from approximately 437 commercial nuclear reactors. The US has 94 active reactors and is the world's largest consumer of uranium. The second is China, and it has 62 active reactors and is expanding its commercial nuclear energy network faster. France, Russia, Japan and South Korea have 57, 34, 33 and 26 active reactors, respectively. India has 24 active reactors. France produces nearly 65% of its total electricity from nuclear power, and Slovakia generates 64% and Hungary 45%. They are small countries and use clean nuclear energy for commercial purposes. India's annual nuclear electricity production accounts for around 3.1% of its total domestic electricity grid. Given the size of its population, energy requirements and climate commitments, India must accelerate the expansion of its commercial nuclear energy network. The uranium diplomacy with Australia is a much-needed, highly anticipated, and urgent agreement.

India's goals are ambitious, and the uranium deal matters a lot to it. It is determined to expand its nuclear power capacity rapidly. It is scaling up from approximately 8 GW today to 100 GW by 2047. India will reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, minimise carbon emissions, and deliver its climate commitments. The agreement is strategically more important as it bolsters security and economic partnership between the two countries. The strong partnership between the two countries will enhance cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. It will ensure secure supply chains. It will gradually lessen the rise of Chinese hegemony in the region. The nuclear agreement is a critical breakthrough. It revives the 2014 civil nuclear pact. The government-to-government (G2G) framework is complete in every sense, as it establishes the legal framework, safety protocols, and other requirements for international shipping. Private Australian mining corporations and Indian energy buyers will negotiate the commercial contracts directly. They will determine the factors such as pricing, timeline, and volumes. Australia exercises strict nuclear safeguards to ensure that the Australian uranium is used solely for civilian energy generation. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the monitoring agency responsible for tracking and ensuring oversight. The tracking mechanism places safeguards to prevent leakage into military or nuclear weapons programmes.

The import of Australian uranium will provide India with fuel security, address its energy deficits, and help it achieve its 100 GW target. It will fulfil India's 2047 clean energy goals. India will ramp up its long-term Nuclear Energy Mission. What, then, is Australia's stake in the entire scheme of things? It diversifies its trade scope. Australia does not use nuclear energy for its domestic policy. It exports its natural resources and finds in India a reliable partner to reduce its singular dependence on China and send all its export baskets to a single destination. Canberra exports 100% of its mined uranium and is a major source of revenue. It exports over 400 containers of uranium annually. The US buys half of its total uranium exports and is the main customer. China imports around 500 tonnes of uranium annually from Australia. India's entry into the Uranium trade with Australia eases its dependence on China for nuclear energy export. The new shipping pipeline to India will give Canberra the freedom not to succumb to the Chinese push-and-pull and economic soft coercion. It gives Canberra the choice to diversify its exporting destinations.

The SHANTI Act (Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India Act) of 2025 is the catalyst for Australia's decision to agree to commercial uranium exports to India, ending a decade-long ambiguity and hesitation. India’s Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CLNDA) of 2010 was also a major hurdle on the path to nuclear import from Australia. CLNDA's provisions were very strict. They retained the right to sue the nuclear supplier indefinitely in the event of an accident. The SHANTI Act reduced legal risks and enabled Australian mining companies to have confidence to enter into long-term supply contracts. India is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Australia demanded guarantees that uranium would be strictly tracked and supplied solely to civilian power grids. The SHANTI Act fixed this problem and transformed India’s nuclear ecosystem. It is transparent, and the segregation mechanisms are clear and comply with Australia's strict tracking requirements.

The SHANTI Act allows private companies to participate and hold 49% foreign equity in civilian nuclear projects. The structural shift marks no governmental monopoly. It also denotes India's resolve to develop a credible domestic infrastructure to fulfil the ambitious 100 GW by 2047 clean energy target. The SHANTI Act is a critical reform of India’s nuclear sector. It replaces the archaic Atomic Energy Act of 1962 and the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act of 2010. It is a legal milestone in India's clean energy capacity. The SHANTI Act minimises the State's monopoly, especially in nuclear energy. It aligns with global standards and overhauls accident liability, as the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act of 2010 strictly imposes. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) was granted regulatory authority and statutory status to ensure the implementation of compliance mechanisms, independent oversight, and enforcement of safety and security standards.

(The views expressed are personal)

This article is authored by Jajati K Pattnaik, professor and chairperson, Centre for West Asian Studies, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Chandan Panda, professor, Central University of Karnataka, Karnataka.