Australia today expressed confidence of early conclusion of the over a year-long negotiations on the civil nuclear deal with India which will pave the way for the much-needed uranium supply.
Australian High Commissioner Patrick Suckling said "very good" progress has been made in negotiations on the deal and that his government wanted to finalise it as soon as possible.
"We are very positive, and constructive results will be seen," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function.
India hopes to import Australian uranium to feed its nuclear power plant reactors, which are expected to increase in next few years.
Australia -- a key member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group--had been earlier opposed to the idea of selling uranium to India as it has not signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT), but had reversed its policy in 2011.
Replying to a question, Suckling said he was confident that ties between the two countries will improve in the coming future.
"The new government is strongly committed to economic reforms. Even our policies on economic reforms are very strong. There is a huge potential, especially in areas such as mining, education and agriculture," he said.
The High Commissioner was speaking after an event to mark issuance of 1,00,000 tourism visas to Indians in a single financial year by Australia.
There has been a 10.3 per cent increase in the total arrivals from India to Australia in the financial year 2013-14.
"Tourism is a vital part of the broader bilateral relationship between India and Australia, and we expect that these numbers will keep on growing", he said.
Observing that strong people-to-people contact was a prerequisite for enhancing the bilateral relationship, Suckling said, "It is important for people to travel between both countries to have a sense of how strong the ties are".
He said there has been spike in enrolment of Indian students in Australian institutes and they form the "second largest group" in Australia.
Suckling said the enrolments for the current financial year went up by 33 per cent.
The High Commissioner also felicitated Delhi resident Manoj Saraogi, who received the 1,00,000th tourism visa issued in financial between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014.
