MELBOURNE — India and Australia have finalized a landmark operational arrangement that officially clears the path for the long-term commercial export of Australian uranium to India. The breakthrough agreement was announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese during their bilateral talks at the third annual Australia-India Summit in Melbourne.

The deal operationalizes a civil nuclear framework first established between the two nations in 2015. Under the newly signed terms, Australia—which holds roughly 28% of the world’s known uranium deposits—will supply uranium to help fuel India’s rapidly expanding civilian nuclear power sector. Both leaders emphasized that the resources will be exported for “exclusively peaceful purposes” under guidelines monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“Today, we have signed an important agreement in the field of nuclear energy,” Prime Minister Modi said during a joint briefing. “This will open the way for uranium supplies from Australia to India and give new impetus to our clean energy objectives.”

Prime Minister Albanese welcomed the deal as a major win for both nations’ strategic and economic futures.

“The arrangement facilitates Australian uranium exports to India to help increase the share of non-fossil fuel power capacity, while also providing an additional market for the Australian resources sector,” Albanese told reporters.

Powering India’s Clean Energy Ambitious

The deal arrives at a critical moment for India, which is looking to scale up its nuclear capacity drastically from roughly 7.7 gigawatts (GW) to an ambitious target of 100 GW by 2047. The steady supply of Australian uranium is expected to give India the energy security required to meet these targets while phasing down carbon emissions.

Beyond nuclear cooperation, the two leaders also unveiled several major initiatives to deepen ties, including:

• The India-Australia Maritime Security Collaboration Roadmap: Aimed at strengthening peace and freedom of navigation across the Indo-Pacific region.
• Critical Minerals & Tech: Expanding partnerships to secure supply chains for critical tech minerals.
• Space Cooperation: Agreement to establish a temporary space tracking terminal on Australia’s Cocos (Keeling) Islands to support upcoming Indian space flight missions.

The agreement underscores a massive shift in bilateral relations, propelled by a rapidly growing Indian diaspora in Australia and a mutual desire to foster a stable, rules-based order across the Indo-Pacific.