Australia and China signed a nuclear safeguards deal today to allow Beijing to import Australian uranium for power generation, but an Australian minister said exports were unlikely to start for some years.
The deal was signed in the presence of visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Australian Prime Minister John Howard.
BUT
Australia's willingness to embrace Beijing has highlighted differences with its close ally the United States, which remains wary and has questioned China's military and economic ambitions
Let us hope that the Chinese Government show more respect for the principles and the mores of international law than in the past, and more than has been shown by some other "advanced nations".
The NPT [the international Non-Proliferation Treaty] obligates the five nuclear-weapon states -- the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, France, and China -- not to transfer nuclear weapons, other nuclear explosive devices, or technology to non-nuclear-weapon states and those which haven't signed the treaty.
Hmm, yes. One can but wonder about South Africa (who has since renounced its nuclear weapons development programmes), Israel, Pakistan and India.
No comments:
Post a Comment