After Tito, no deluge

Press, 19 October 1976, Page 6

After Tito, no deluge

PA Wellington Yugoslavs are not anxious to speculate on their country’s chances of maintaining a ' non-aligned stance once their ageing leader, General Tito, dies. This attitude was not because they did not know what would happen, but because they did not want Tito to die, the leader of a Yugoslav Parliamentary delegation said when the group arrived in Wellington last night. Mr Rudi Kolak, the VicePresident of the Yugoslav National Assembly, said the death of Tito would not bring any changes to his: country’s foreign policy. “Tito would have been a very small man if after his death his policies were not continued,” said Mr Kolak through an interpreter, Miss Vidosava Jankovic, who is travelling with the delegation. Tito’s policy of keeping Yugoslavia out of the ideological conflict between the

[U.S.S.R, and the West went ‘back as far as the national (liberation war against the (Germans. Since then the concept of the non-aligned country had grown, Mr Kolak said.

“It is not vital that all nonaligned countries have the same ideological point though they are engaged in something which is vital —the struggle for peace and against colonialism and neocolonialism. “These are strong arguments for this policy,” he said.

Also travelling with the delegation is a security officer, Counsellor Josip Petricevic, a police inspector. “He will talk with the members of your police if it becomes necessary, but w r e hope he will not have much to talk about,” Mr Kolak said. It was not appropriate for the delegation to talk about security measures. “We don’t think you have such prob-

lems here, so we don’t need to talk about that.” While in New Zealand the delegation, which comprises Messrs Stojan Milenkovic, Mirko Lackovic and Krste Markovski, and a secretary, Mr Djordje Jankovic. will discuss the trade balance between the two countries at present heavily in New Zealand’s favour.

The members of the delegation represent four of the six states which make up the Yugoslav Socialist Federal Republic. Mr Kolak is a member of the Bosnia Herzegovina Federal Chamber, Mr Milenkdvjc is vice-president of the Yugoslav and Serbian Chambers of Commerce, Mr Lack-; ovic is the Croatian Assistant Agriculture Minister and a member of the Federal Chamber, and Mr Markovsi is vice-president of the Yugoslav Trade Union Alliance and president of the Macedonian Trade Unions.

Mr Kolak, who is also president of the Federal Chamber of Commerce said he thought officials in New Zealand were also keen to see an increase in imports from Yugoslavia. “We shall be trying to do everything we can to improve the situation,” he said.

Asked if the delegation hopes to expand Yugoslavia’s range of exports to New Zealand — mostly chemicals, pharmaceutical and engineering goods — during their seven day visit, Mr Kolak said he could not be specific.

“We have a free-trade country. Organisations are completely autonomous. It is they who decide where they will export.

“We are part of the world economy which is not in a very good state and, because of this, new trade barriers and tariffs are constantly being instituted. In a sense these are an obstancle to free trade,” he said.