U.S. diplomat assures Asia of support

Press, 14 August 1978, Page 9

U.S. diplomat assures Asia of support

NZPA-Reuter Manila The United States Will strengthen its forces in Asia over the next ■ five .years with advanced nuclear and other weapons systems .in efforts to maintain a strategic security balance in the region, the American Ambassador to the Philippines (Mr Richard Murphy) said on Saturday. Addressing a Lions Club meeting, Mr Murphy described the nearby American Subic Bay Naval Base and Clark Air Base as among the keys to preserving a credible deterrent against hostile activity in Asia and an effective American contribution to regional stability. Noting uncertainties of

Sino-Soyiet relations, and in t North Korea and Indo-China, t Mr Murphy said: “We intend t to remain prepared to meet I that (global) challenge in 1 Asia just as we are prepared if to meet it elsewhere. “From the standpoint of]l security, the strategic bal- ( j ance that exists today is 1 clearly in our nation’s inter- I est and in the interest of then region. United States pol-(' icies seek to maintain the! 1 current equilibrium pre-fi venting any single power, from attaining a pre-(I ponderance of influence or] military superiority,” he I said. Mr Murphy’s remarks I seemed designed to reinforce! support for continued j American use erf bases inf

the Philippines in talks between the two sides about t’.eir future. It followed calls by the Philippines-backed National Youth Movement for the closing of the bases. He told his audience that Soviet military strength in Asia and the Pacific was growing and that there could be no security in Europe] (without security in Asia.! (where American trade] (reached $6O billion last year (alone. x 1 He said President Carter (had decided that, apart from (planned withdrawals from (South Korea, the United (States must maintain the (present level of its combat (forces in Asia, on bases in ( the Philippines, Japan, Soutn iKorea, and Guam.