Pranab concludes Australia visit

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee left for New Delhi on Tuesday concluding his first visit to Australia during which both the sides inked treaties on extradition and mutual legal assistance and reviewed the entire gamut of bilateral ties including the possible sale of uranium to India.
    
Both the countries also agreed to further strengthen their relationship by forming a new body to hold yearly talks and by signing treaties to increase anti-terror efforts.
    
Mukherjee, who met Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and visited parliament yesterday, signed extradition and mutual legal assistance treaties with his Australian counterpart Stephen Smith as both the leaders vowed to  enhance their strategic security and counter-terrorism cooperation.
    
Smith said he wanted Australia to take its relationship with India to "the front line of its international partnerships. It is a matter of regret that, over the last 30 years or so, Australia has under-appreciated its relationship with India."
    
On the export of uranium, Smith said New Delhi was well aware of the Labor Party's opposition to uranium sales to India, as India was not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation

Treaty.
   
"The Australian Labor Party has a longstanding position, which is well known, that we don't export uranium to a country which is not a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Smith said.
   
Smith, who is expected to visit New Delhi in September, said Australia strongly backed India's bid to join APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) after the expiry of the group's 2010 moratorium on its expansion and also its bid to become a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
    
Mukherjee said India supported Australia's application for observer status at the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation.
   
On Monday, the two countries agreed to establish an Australia-India Roundtable, which will be jointly convened by the Lowy Institute and the Indian Council for World Affairs.
   
Highlighting education as an vital sector of growing relations, the two ministers announced a new joint working group to examine passport and consular issues. Over 52,000 Indian students are studying in Australia and two-way tourism is booming.
   
The two leaders, in a joint statement issued after the Australia-India Foreign Ministers Framework Dialogue, the fifth in a series and first since 2005, reiterated their strong support for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation.