Modi, Albanese unveil raft of deals from uranium to maritime security

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unveiled a series of agreements following talks in Australia, spanning a civil nuclear pact enabling uranium supplies, critical minerals cooperation and maritime security collaboration.

The centrepiece nuclear agreement will facilitate commercial supply of Australian uranium for India’s civilian nuclear power programme. “Today, we have signed an important agreement in the field of nuclear energy. This will open the way for uranium supplies from Australia to India and give new impetus to our clean energy objectives,” Modi said, while Albanese called it an opportunity to provide “an additional market for the Australian resources sector.”

The two sides also agreed to launch the Australia-India Partnership on Cyber, Critical Technologies and Supply Chains and to work on a critical minerals corridor. Modi said the India-Australia Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap would strengthen efforts toward a “free, stable and rules-based Indo-Pacific.”

A joint declaration on defence and security cooperation was also issued, with plans to connect defence startups through the India-Australia Defence Innovation Corridor, expand maritime cooperation and increase interoperability between the two countries’ armed forces.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the nuclear deal is expected to diversify India’s energy sources under the SHANTI Act, which aims to expand nuclear power capacity while ensuring safe and responsible use of atomic energy.