Beijing, Apr 04: A day after inking a major uranium
deal with Australia, China today said it has okayed a similar
arrangement with its arch-foe, Taiwan under IAEA safeguards
as well as a non-government entity.
"We have taken note of relevant reports. The Chinese
government has made some related arrangements with the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the safeguard
and monitoring of China's Taiwan's nuclear activities,"
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters
when asked to comment on the Australia-Taiwan uranium deal.
Liu said that the IAEA has all along conducted safeguards
and monitoring of Taiwan's related activities on the basis of
a non-governmental entity to ensure its peaceful nature.
Reports from Canberra said that two Australian mining
companies recently entered contracts to sell uranium to
Taiwan, an island of 23 million people which is viewed by
Beijing as a rebel province that must be reunified, even by
force.
Energy resources of Australia Ltd, and BHP Billiton
Ltd/PLC confirmed that they had contracts to sell uranium to
Taiwan.
Australia, which follows the "one-china" policy has an
arrangement with the united states in 2002 that made it
possible to export Australian uranium to Taiwan via the United
States, although contracts were only entered into during the
past year, the report said.
Bureau Report