Australia and India have been negotiating a nuclear safeguards agreement with verification mechanisms since 2012, when a previous Australian government agreed on civil nuclear energy cooperation with India that would eventually lead to the export of Australian uranium to the energy-starved South Asian nation.
India faces chronic shortages of electricity and about 65 percent of its installed power generation capacity comes from burning fossil fuels including oil, coal and natural gas. It is eager to expand its nuclear power capacity.
Australia's decision to sell uranium to India follows a civil nuclear agreement between India and the United States signed in 2008 that allows Washington to sell nuclear fuel and technology to India without it giving up its military nuclear program.
