Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh met with Tony Blair

Blair defends India in nuclear row

Blair defends India in nuclear row

Tony Blair today defended the right of India to have nuclear weapons while condemning North Korea’s ambitions to do the same.

Speaking after a meeting with Indian prime minister Manmoham Singh, Mr Blair insisted “proper functioning democracies” did not pose the same threat to international peace and security as countries such as North Korea.

The prime minister’s comments came as members of the UN security council met in New York again to discuss their response to North Korea’s first nuclear test yesterday.

In the House of Commons this afternoon, foreign secretary Margaret Beckett said Britain would back sanctions on luxury goods and non-military assets proposed by the US, as well as plans put by Japan for a ban on North Korean ships and planes.

She rejected Liberal Democrat claims that the current crisis represented a “massive failure” by US and British foreign policy which had been “disastrously” side-tracked by Iraq and failed to notice what North Korea was doing.

Nor did she accept suggestions that Pyongyang had been forced to develop nuclear technology when faced with the threat of the US, which branded North Korea part of the ‘axis of evil’ along with Iran and Iraq following the September 11th attacks.

“This is a North Korean failure – home grown,” Ms Beckett told MPs, adding that people were “mistaken in thinking this in some way followed or was exacerbated by anything President Bush or anyone else has said”.

At the press conference in Downing Street earlier, Mr Blair and Mr Singh were questioned about the difference between North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and those of India, whose decision to conduct nuclear tests in 1998 was widely condemned.

North Korea was a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but withdrew in 2003 after admitting nuclear activities. India, Pakistan and Israel – all nuclear states – have not signed up.

“The difference between a country like Britain or a country like India, and a country like North Korea, is that we are democracies, we abide by the rule of law, we abide by our international obligations,” Mr Blair replied.

“North Korea is doing none of those things.Here is a country – North Korea – doing a nuclear test in complete breach of all the obligations it has entered into, doing so in circumstances where its people are kept virtually in a position of slavery.”

Mr Singh agreed, saying his country had expressed “deep concern” about North Korea’s nuclear tests, in particular that it might sell its nuclear technology to the highest bidder.

“I wish to state that a further erosion of the non-proliferation regime is not in our interest. We do not support the emergence of another nuclear weapon state,” Mr Singh said.

“The North Korea test highlights the dangers of clandestine proliferation.there is no parallel between India’s policies and what has happened in North Korea.”

Ms Beckett reinforced this point in the Commons later, saying: “That’s exactly why the international community is so alarmed – it’s not just North Korea but the fact that they have shown propensity to distribute their weapons in the past.”