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Australia recalls high commissioner for 'consultation'

The Australian government has recalled Rob Laurie, its high commissioner to New Delhi for consultation, while the New Zealand government today recalled its ambassador from New Delhi to protest three underground nuclear tests conducted by India.

"The Australian government strongly condemns what India has done,'' Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio. "This is in total defiance of the will of the international community.''

New Zealand Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said she viewed the Indian tests with deep alarm and had also recalled New Zealand's ambassador.

"At a time when the world was really filled with hope... That we were seeing the end of the nuclear arms race, that dream has been shattered by India,'' Shipley told Breakfast Television. "We have to make it very clear the world will not tolerate a new nuclear arms race in Asia,'' she said.

India's ambassador to New Zealand Kipgen has defended his government's decision to explode the devices in a meeting with New Zealand Foreign Minister Don McKinnon.

"Why should I apologise?'' Kipgen asked reporters after the meeting.

At the meeting, Kipgen reiterated his country's concern over threats to its borders and said India and the region had to be secure, McKinnon said. "(He argued) it was a defensive measure, which I totally reject,'' the NZ foreign minister said.

Australian seismologists recorded the tests as reaching 5 on the Richter scale and having the explosive power of 5 to 20 kilotons of TNT, the Australian Geological Survey Organisations Nuclear Monitoring Group said.

UNI

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