CRI听力:Australia and India Sign Agreement over Uranium Trade

Australia and India have signed an agreement allowing the export of Australian uranium to New Delhi for use in power generation.

This happens in a meeting between the visiting Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi.

Modi welcomes the aggrement and sees it as a milestone for the relationship of the two counties.

"The signing of the civil nuclear cooperation agreement was a historic milestone in our relationship. It is a reflection of a new level of mutual trust and confidence in our relationship and will open a new chapter in our bilateral cooperation. It will support India's efforts to fumeless growth with clean energy and minimise the carbon footprint of its growth."

For his part, Abbott says Australia has confidence in India to do the right thing.

"We have signed a nuclear cooperation agreement because Australia trusts India to do the right thing in this area as it has done the right thing in every area since independence almost seventy years ago."

India faces chronic shortages of electricity and about 65 percent of its installed power generation capacity comes from burning fossil fuels.

To gain nuclear power capacity, India has been negotiating with Australia since 2012.

Australia's strict conditions on uranium exports and India's failure to sign the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty had long been a barrier to the agreement.