Involvement In Asia Urged

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31785, 16 September 1968, Page 16

Involvement In Asia Urged

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON, Sept. 15. New Zealand needed to become more politically active in SouthEast Asia, the Minister of Defence (Mr Thomson) said on Saturday. He told a Post Office Association study course that although co-operation with Asian countries in economic, social, and cultural matters had been a reality for many years, political co-operatior was a new venture. "In this respect regional groupings such as the Asian and Pacific Council and the Association of South-East Asian Nations hold much promise.” he said. “They provide unique opportunities for their members to discuss and exchange views on political questions of immediate copcern.”

Mr Thompson said he thought that in the long term, as mutual confidence grew, such forums could be instrumental not only in solving individual differences by quiet negotiations, but in working out means of solving some of the wider issues which would confront the region in the near future. Japan, South Korea and Formosa were all embarking on more vigorous policies, and useful trade connections which New Zealand had already established with them were bound to expand, he said.

“These activities, should. I believe, be matched by joint action in the political field, for in many respects our interests are much the same. “These countries of the north had much to contribute to the less-developed countries of the south if New Zealand and other countries could help bring them together.

“In a very real sense then. New Zealand has the opportunity to contribute to the evolution of the Asian political community” New Zealand should atattempt to play a more positive role in Asia, he said. Stability, Security

“Our objective in Asia, in its simplest terms, is to bring about conditions of stability security and growing prosperity within which we can live peacefully, profitably and ■ ooperatively with our Asian neighbours. “This objective will remain constant, but the circumstances in which we pursue it will not.

Perhaps the most striking of the recent developments in Asia had been the new impetus toward regional co-oper-ation, Mr Thomson said. Part of this came from the effective work by such international schemes as the Colombo Plan and E.C.A.F.E, but it also stemmed from a

genuine desire of the Asian states to work together for their common good. “We see regionalism as a means of building up a group of confident, self • reliant states better able to withstand the pressures of Communist China—as an essential counterpart to those measures which we and some of our Asian allies have taken in the military field. No Narrowness

“We must take care that this co-operative movement does not develop into a narrow, self-contained regionalism. “We must retain a continual awareness of the value of a wider international approach and ensure that the interest of the great powers in the stability of the region is not diminished.

“Asia’s problems are immense and the assistance of the great powers will continue to be needed,” Mr Thomson said.