SYDNEY -- Just as Japan switched on the Australian economic miracle a generation or two ago, so China is giving it a recharge today. And the new source of the power surge promises implications for the whole Asia Pacific region.
Already a key resource supplier to energy-hungry China, Australia has signed a deal with Beijing that will allow it to become the dominant supplier of uranium for China's nuclear-energy industry. The breakthrough signals a far more intensive era in Beijing-Canberra relations than mere trade, though a free-trade agreement cannot be far off.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has returned home from Canberra after an extremely successful visit that saw him jog with Australian Prime Minister John Howard and sign a nuclear safeguards agreement. The deal will allow Australia, which has 40 percent of the world's known uranium deposits, to supply uranium to be processed into energy for China's booming nuclear-power industry. The pact also raises huge questions about Australia's possible involvement in Asia's nuclear-arms debate.