The decks for the import of uranium by India have been cleared with India and Australia inking a pact on civil nuclear energy deal. The pact was signed in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Tony Abbott in New Delhi this evening. The nuclear deal will form a high point in the ongoing transformation of India-Australia relations. The efforts to sign civil nuclear deal were underway since 2012 after Labour party in Australia reversed its decision to ban the sale of uranium to India because of New Delhi not being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, NPT. The negotiations took place on uranium sales after Canberra lifted a long-time ban on exporting the valuable ore to Delhi to meet its ambitious nuclear energy programme. India is not a signatory to the NPT, but Austrialian Prime Minister Abbott has stressed that Australia will ensure adequate bilateral safeguards. After the failure to conclude a civil nuclear deal with Japan during Modi's visit to that country, the pact with Australia will boost India's energy sector. Australia has about a third of the world's recoverable uranium resources and exports nearly seven thousand tonnes of it a year.