No accord on fishing zone

Press, 29 August 1977, Page 1

No accord on fishing zone

NZPA staff correspondent Port Moresby

The South Pacific Forum is apparently still divided over 200-cnile fishing zones, after an informal week-end of talks at Madang, on the north coast of New Guinea. However, the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said on his return to Port Moresby last evening that a lot of progress had been made, in what he described as “a very good start” to the eighth South Pacific Forum which will start officially today. He said that in any case it was not possible to reach full accord on the fishing zones because of the absence in Madang of the leaders of Western Samoa, Nauru and Australia. All three leaders —

Tupuola Efi (Samoa), Mr Bernard Dowiyogo (Nauru), and Mr Malcolm Fraser (Australia) — reached Port Moresby yesterday. Mr Fraser will leave again this afternoon, but the others will stay until the forum ends on Wednesday.

Mr Muldoon said the week-end get-together — it has been called the Gleneaglet by some officials — had not made any final decisions, but would be recommending the appointment of Mr Robert Rex, Premier of Niue, as official spokesman. The talks took place without the presence of officials, although he said that one or two leaders had felt the desirability of consultation on some of the more difficult questions. "We made a lot of progress, and clarified most

issues — whether they would be big or small issues.” He refused to be drawn into a comment on the effect of the absence of Mr Fraser from the Madang week-end, apart from saying: “They (the Island leaders) always prefer a presence rather than an absence.”

Mr Muldoon repeated his denial of a report last week which said he would be using the forum as a means of furthering New Zealand’s bargaining position in its trade relationship with Japan. He described the report — which was given prominence in the local Port Moresby paper — as uninformed and annoying.

The 200-mile zones and the establishment of a South Pacific fisheries

agency will dominate the activities of the forum, which will be opened this morning by the GovernorGeneral (Sir Tohe Lokoloko). Mr Muldoon will lead a delegation of eight at the forum His senior advisers will be a Deputy Secretary of Foreign Affairs (Mr Mervyn Norrish) and the head of the Economic Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Mr Christopher Beeby).

Mr Muldoon said that while in Madang he met a group of 30 to 40 New Zealanders living there and held discussions which mainly involved trade relationships. “They raised the question of shipping," he said, “something I will want to look at when 1 get back.”