ABSTRACT
The emergence of an Indo-Australian relationship of substance and significance, sufficient to engage the two governments and peoples in cooperative and mutually beneficial endeavours, depends principally on Australian policy imagination and initiative. The lack of substance in the Indo-Australian relationship is often attributed to difference in cultures, religions or economies. However, there are a great many circumstances in which difference can be the basis of a mutual engagement. From the early 1990s the governments of both India and Australia developed in parallel a policy of closer relationships with South-east Asia, and the ASEAN organisation in particular. Australia's uranium trade with India appears set to expand with the Australian government's announcement in August 2007 that it will allow uranium sales to India. Australia is now at risk of being left behind, it may miss the chance to make itself a significant partner in the emergence of India as a great power.
