Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott lays a wreath at the Taj Hotel 26/11 terror attacks memorial in Mumbai yesterday. A three-day rampage by terrorists killed 166 people in Mumbai in November 2008. One of their targets was the Taj Hotel.
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said yesterday that India offered an “abundance of opportunities,” on the first day of a visit during which he is expected to sign a long-awaited uranium deal with the energy-starved nation.
Abbott is expected to sign the agreement to sell uranium to India when he meets Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi today.
Modi swept to power in May promising to open up Asia’s third-largest economy to foreign investment.
“The purpose of this trip, as far as I’m concerned, is to acknowledge the importance of India in the wider world, acknowledge the importance of India to Australia’s future,” he told business leaders in Mumbai at the start of a two-day visit also aimed at boosting trade.
“There is an abundance of opportunities here in India. I am determined to make the most of them.”
India and Australia kick-started negotiations on uranium sales in 2012 after Canberra lifted a long-standing ban on exporting the valuable ore to Delhi to meet its ambitious nuclear energy programme.
Australia, the world’s third-largest producer of uranium, had previously ruled out selling the metal because nuclear-armed India has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
