Message from Down Under: India, 'U' won't get it | More

NO DEAL: Aussies did not budge from their government's stated pitch on uranium sale.

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Keywords: Pranab Mukherjee, Uranium, India-australia Ties,

New Delhi: There was no missing the cricket metaphors.

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee likened his 24-hour visit to Australia to a 20-20 match, his counterpart Stephen Smith said they would like this century with India to be like a test match.

But at the end, Aussies did not budge from their government's stated pitch.

“The Australian Labour Party has a long standing position which is well known that we don't export uranium to a country which is not a signatory to the NPT,” Smith announced.

Mukherjee was on the backfoot given the way domestic political compulsions have dogged and delayed the nuclear deal.

“It is an exercise to look at a train which has no possibility or when it will arrive at the platform nobody knows. It is just like that. Therefore let the process be completed,” he said.

The process obviously relates to a political consensus at home on the nuclear deal and approval of the IAEA safeguards agreement.

Stephen Smith indicated that if the IAEA safeguards agreement was approved and the nuclear deal reached the Nuclear Suppliers Group, his government could review its decision on not selling uranium to India.