228. Letter From Australian Prime Minister Fraser to President Carter 1
I have been most interested in the views you have expressed on the question of strengthening restraints on nuclear weapons proliferation. For Australia’s part we share the concerns you have expressed and fully support the objective of strengthening the non-proliferation regime. The importance which you have attached to this accords with my own assessment that there is a need for intensified efforts to reinforce the control regimes necessary to prevent peaceful nuclear development from giving rise to the proliferation of nuclear weapons capabilities.
I have noted, in particular, the emphasis you have placed on effective control of that portion of the nuclear fuel cycle concerned with spent nuclear fuel, reprocessing and plutonium. This corresponds with the emphasis of the first report of our own Environmental Inquiry and the Inquiry recently conducted in the United Kingdom. I am aware that there is a good deal of new thinking internationally on adequate control of reprocessing and plutonium management, including studies being conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency. I shall be most interested in the way your policies evolve in coming months.
Apart from our general commitment to non-proliferation Australia’s particular interest—and perhaps our scope in future to exert influence on international developments—relates to our potential as a supplier of uranium. Australia would certainly want nuclear material deriving from any uranium it may supply to be subject to stringent control. You may be aware that the Australian Government does not intend to take final decisions on the issue of future marketing of Australian uranium until it has received the final report of the Environmental Inquiry which is currently being conducted in Australia.
The first report of the Environmental Inquiry, which dealt with the more general issues involved in uranium export and nuclear power, stressed the need to ensure that effective restraints exist against nuclear [Page 751] weapons proliferation and it stressed also the need for the fullest and most effective safeguards on uranium exported by Australia.
The Australian Government will be giving close consideration to these matters in the near future in the context of formulating a national Australian policy on nuclear safeguards. Naturally we wish to take full account of any new thinking as it develops in this area, especially to ensure that our policies and those of the United States and other like-minded countries, such as Canada, are mutually reinforcing. Australian officials already have held detailed and useful consultations with United States officials and I am sure you would agree that it is highly desirable that this be an ongoing process. I believe this constitutes a particularly fertile and important area for co-operation and for co-ordination of the policies of our two countries.
In view of Canada’s well-known interest in this field and its position as an important nuclear supplier, I am sending a copy of this letter to Mr Trudeau.
Yours sincerely,
- Source: Carter Library, National Security Affairs, Brzezinski Material, Brzezinski Office File, Country Chron File, Box 4, Australia, 1977. Confidential.↩