One of the first things Russian President Vladimir Putin did upon his arrival in Sydney for the APEC summit today was to seal a deal to buy Australian uranium.
The Russian leader met with the Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer at the PM's Sydney office were the uranium pact was signed.
"I think this is a good step forward, we have the potential to export to Russia at least $1billion a year worth of uranium," Mr Downer told reporters following the signing.
Mr Downer said the two governments had been negotiating the agreement over the past several months.
"It's consistent with the other nuclear safeguard agreements we have with a range of different countries around the world," said Mr Downer.
"Russia is increasing its nuclear power stations capacity from 15 per cent of Russian power generation to 25 per cent over the next two decades so there is no doubt that there will be a very big demand from Russia for its uranium.
"Australia has around 40 per cent of the world's uranium reserves," he stated.
While the Australian Government may be pleased with the deal, critics say the Kremlin cannot be trusted and has a dubious uranium management record.
Greens Senator Kerry Nettle doubted that any proposed safeguards could guarantee that Australian uranium would not end up in Russian armaments. Ms Nettle told The Epoch Times that the only thing that could be guaranteed by the sale was the creation of more nuclear waste that may one day be returned to Australia.
She also stated that the pact will free up the Kremlin's own uranium supplies for non- domestic purposes and for selling to rouge states such as Iran.
In an interview with the ABC, Professor Graeme Gill a Russia analyst from the Sydney University said he also had reservations about the safety of the deal.
"The problem is that there is no way of actually verifying what they do with it and it may very well be the case that what Russia do will be to use Australian uranium for domestic purposes," he said.
"What that does is free up Russian sources of uranium, which they can then ship abroad."
Friends of the Earth, Australia nuclear campaigner Michaela Stubbs said via statement the deal to sell uranium to Russia was risky business. "The Australian Government is following a dangerous trend of opening up uranium sales to yet another nuclear weapons state which refuses to abide by its disarmament commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)," she said.
"We have the responsibility to engage in safe global trade not to fuel nuclear weapons proliferation, regional tensions and the production of the longest lived, most toxic waste known to humans," Ms Stubbs said.
President Putin's visit makes him the first Russian or Soviet leader to visit Australia. Just before arriving in Australia visited Indonesia where he made a $1.2 billion deal to sell Russian military equipment to Jakarta.
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