New Delhi, Jan. 27: Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj plans to fly to Australia in early February for talks with her counterpart Julie Bishop that will include attempts to push through the early implementation of a rare nuclear deal New Delhi has completely sealed.

Sushma's trip will follow in the wake of failed negotiations with France during President Francois Hollande's visit this week that were aimed at clinching a financial deal on the construction of six nuclear reactors in Maharashtra's Jaitapur.

The Narendra Modi government has repeatedly tried to emphasise its successes in nuclear diplomacy since it came to power in May 2014, though nuclear deals with most major countries were signed when its predecessor, the UPA administration, was in charge.

But the deadlock with France is only the latest in a lingering set of nuclear plans with countries, including the US and Japan, that remain either on the drawing board or unimplemented despite a diplomatic thrust by both the current and previous governments.

Australia holds the world's largest resources of uranium, and late last year ratified a nuclear deal with India finalised after years of back-and-forth talks and despite domestic political pressure within that country. Sushma is expected to travel at the end of the first week of February, senior officials have told The Telegraph.

"The nuclear agreement is a milestone and a source of trust and confidence," foreign ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup had quoted Modi as telling Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull when they met in November in Antalya, Turkey, on the margins of the G-20 summit after Canberra had completed its ratification.

"With the completion of procedures, including administrative arrangements, the civil nuclear agreement will now enter into force."

The ratification of the nuclear agreement followed years of tough negotiations spanning multiple Australian governments, with both the Labour and Liberal parties also playing musical chairs with their country's Prime Ministers.

Former Labour Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was initially against a nuclear deal with India - which is not a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty - then began to support it. Julia Gillard, who was Labour Prime Minister between two Rudd stints, backed the deal.

But it was under Turnbull's Liberal predecessor Tony Abbott that Australia clearly indicated it was willing to push through the agreement despite domestic political criticism.

India and Australia inked the pact in September 2014 when Abbott visited New Delhi, and the Liberal Party used its numbers in the Australian parliament to push the agreement's ratification through a treaties committee.

Other key deals India and Australia are eyeing - like a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement - are stuck over details. But the nuclear deal represents a success in a field where, despite a personal outreach by Modi to world leaders, India's gains so far over the past 20 months remain modest.

During US President Barack Obama's visit to India in January last year, the two countries announced a "breakthrough" in their dispute over New Delhi's nuclear liability law that had held up the implementation of a 2008 deal. But a year later, niggles over the cost of US reactors continue to hobble the deal.

US and French reactors use Japanese components and truly implementing a nuclear deal with them will need an agreement with Tokyo, too. But though Modi has repeatedly called Shinzo Abe, Japan's Prime Minister, a "close friend" and has hugged him in public on more than one occasion, the deal with Tokyo remains distant.

When Abe visited India in early December, the two countries had hoped to close the deal. Instead, foreign secretary S. Jaishankar had to concede the agreement needed to pass through layers of scrutiny in Japan first.

The nuclear diplomacy during Hollande's recent visit mimicked Abe's trip. Again, India had hoped to showcase a breakthrough in price negotiations over the six reactors. Instead, Jaishankar accepted he couldn't set a timeline for completion of talks. "It's still early days on that," he said.