Melbourne: Visiting US President Barack Obama has denied speculations that America influenced Australia to overturn its policy of not selling uranium to India.
"We have not had any influence, I suspect, on Australia's decision to explore what its relationship in terms of the peaceful use of nuclear energy in India might be," the US President said on his arrival in Canberra yesterday.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard had announced her plan to lift the ban on uranium exports to India in a newspaper article on Tuesday. "I don't think Julia or anybody else needs my advice in figuring that out," said Obama.
Obama said Gillard's decision to overturn the uranium export ban seemed to be compatible with international law.
"I will watch with interest what's determined. But this is not something between the US and Australia... this is something between India and Australia," the US president said.
Gillard said in an article published in The Age newspaper that ‘it is time for [ruling] Labor to modernise our platform and enable us to strengthen our connection with dynamic, democratic India".