AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT TO EXPORT URANIUM TO RUSSIA

By Benedict Coleridge

The Australian Government’s decision to sign an agreement to export uranium to Russia is one building block towards an Australia-Russia relationship of great potential.

The inevitable expansion of high level contacts that comes with a multi-billion dollar trade deal should be looked on as a positive development for Australia.

It connects Australia to a Russia that may be in the process of re-orienting itself from superseded manufacturing strength in the west to opportunity in its resource rich east.

In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, which, according to some estimates deflated Russian GDP by up to ten per cent, Russia has been looking at ways to modernise and diversify its raw materials dominated economy. In this vein, Dmitry Trenin, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, has suggested that the global power shift towards the Pacific and Asia presents great opportunities for Russia and that it ‘would do well to think of Vladivostok as its 21st century capital.’

Trenin argues that a new emphasis by Russia on the Pacific Rim will help develop resource rich Siberia and expand contacts with other Pacific Rim nations. As Moscow’s eye roves east, Russia will inevitably become more closely involved in the affairs of the Asia-Pacific region. Through APEC and bilateral relationships, Russia will cement its presence as a Pacific Rim nation.

This re-focusing of Russian attention is in fact already underway: in 2007, Russia allocated billions of dollars to constructing a new submarine base in the Pacific and modernising its Pacific fleet. Russian arms have already made their way to Indonesia: also in 2007, then President Putin signed a $1 billion deal for submarines, tanks and fighter jets with the Indonesian government.

It is clear then that Russian policies are already having a direct impact on Australia’s immediate neighbourhood. But we increasingly encounter each other in diverse contexts: this month in Afghanistan a Russian helicopter and its crew transported a damaged Australian Bushmaster armoured vehicle back to its base; where Australian capability was lacking, Russian heavy lifting stepped in.

Yet Russia is relevant to Australians not only in a strategic sense. Thousands of workers in Australia’s kangaroo meat industry know already how important Russian policy can be for Australian livelihoods; the Russian government banned imports of kangaroo meat due to sanitary concerns and 2500 rural workers lost their jobs.

While it may be distant geographically, Russia is present in our region and its presence should focus our attention.

The expanding relationship takes more various forms than just high level trade deals. On the books is a visit to Australia by the deputy governor of the Tomsk region in Siberia, Oksana Kozlovskaya: the visit was to take place this month but is to be rescheduled (the deputy governor has business with President Medvedev at that time).

The visit will be part of an exercise in building relationships based on knowledge transfer between institutions. She will explore the possibilities of a strategic relationship between Tomsk and faculties of The University of Melbourne, such as Science and Engineering.

Tomsk is at the forefront of a push by President Dmitry Medvedev to modernise Russia’s economy through technology and private enterprise. When visiting the city in February, the Russian President told a gathering of science and medical students that “the modernisation of Russia’s economy must be based on new technologies, innovation and the radical restructuring of the country’s internal economic structure.”

Tomsk is well situated to lead this effort, being a regional centre and the ‘Athens of Siberia,’ renowned for its six universities. One of the key regional industries is mineral extraction; Tomsk is nearby vast Siberian reserves of iron and titanium ores.

Even more significantly, the Tomsk region is home to almost a third of Russia’s oil deposits. In this context, the possibilities of an Australian/Russian relationship become clearer: Australian expertise in mineral extraction could play a role in developing this strategic region, and Australian agricultural technology could aid the revival of Russia’s once powerful agriculture sector.

In fact, contacts between Russian and Australian companies are already emerging; one such occurred in March last year, when the Andrew Forrest led Poseidon Nickel Ltd entered talks with Russian miner Norilsk Nickel over the Cawse nickel operation in Western Australia.

Benedict Coleridge is on the executive of the University of Melbourne Russian Society.

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