No parallel between India, Korea nuke tests: Blair

Amid an international uproar over the North Korean nuclear test, British Prime Minister Tony Blair today firmly rejected any parallels between it and India's case, saying New Delhi had stood by its international obligations and was working strongly for counter-proliferation.

Endorsing Blair's view, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saw the North Korean test as highlighting the "danger of clandestine proliferation" and pointed out that India's own security had suffered due to "clandestine proliferation with linkages emanating from our neighbourhood", a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan.|

The two leaders faced a number of questions on the North Korean test at a joint press conference at 10, Downing Street, after they held wide-ranging discussions encompassing this issue as well as terrorism, Indo -Pak ties, energy, trade and economic relations.

Blair minced no words in denouncing the North Korean test, which he said was in "clear breach" of its international obligations. "India has been working strongly on counter-proliferation while North Korea was going in the opposite direction. It is a very, very serious situation. We are in discussions with our key allies," he said.

North Korea, Blair said, was "very much a separate case" than India and any comparisons would be false. "The difference between a country like Britain or a country like India and a country like North Korea is that we are a democracy, we abide by the rule of law and we abide by our international obligations. North Korea is doing none of those things," he added.