Indian Ocean plan

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33653, 1 October 1974, Page 17

Indian Ocean plan

(By

JAMES CLARITY,

of the "New York Times" through N.Z.P.A.)

TEHERAN (Iran), September 28. The Shah of Iran has proposed some “kind of military understanding” among the countries in the area of the Indian Ocean, including Iran and Australia. The proposal marked the first time Shah Mohammed Riza Pahlavi has suggested a collective security arrangement among the countries on, or relatively close to, the Indian Ocean.

Previously the Shah had proposed only that the area be declared a “zone of peace” and that nations in it consider economic co-opera-tion that could lead to a common market style arrangement. The Shah’s proposal was made in Canberra, which he visited in the middle of the most extensive tour he has ever made to nations east of his kingdom. In Canberra, the Shah attracted attention with his refusal to lower oil prices unless oil-consuming nations reduced prices on their exports to Iran and other oil-producing nations.

The collective security proposal, although the Shah gave few details of its implementation, seemed designed to build Iran’s image as a nation whose growing military strength and new economic power were leading it to seek more influence in an ever-widening geographical area. The Shah has said that he expects Iran to become a world power of the stature, perhaps, of West Germany within 25 years. In discussing his proposal for a “military understanding” the Shah made it clear that the purpose of such an agreement would be to reduce the presence in the Indian Ocean of the United States and the Soviet Union, replacing their naval power with that of nations such as Iran and Australia. The Shah gave no timetable for reaching such an understanding, but said that the Indian Ocean nations should meet and discuss his idea with a view toward asking Washington and Moscow to withdraw their ships from the area.

Asked what sort of organisation of Indian Ocean countries he foresaw, the

Shah said: “Well, the easiest one is the economic and eventually the political, but it must be followed up by some kind of military understanding. “In the sector of security, I think that we have got to do that before we have world disarmament in order to keep outside countries from pretending that they have got to be here because their interests are threatened by the region being insecure.”

The Shah repeated his acquiesence to United States’ plans to enlarge its naval presence in the Indian Ocean to compete with the Soviet presence there. Asserting that there was considerable Soviet naval activity in the ocean, he said: “How could we tell the Americans to keep away? But he could ask both of them to keep away from the Indian Ocean simultaneously.”