N.Z. forces ‘not needed’

Press, 8 July 1980, Page 21

N.Z. forces ‘not needed’

NZPA , Singapore New 'Zealand and Australian forces are unlikely to be callel for service at the Thai-Kampuchean frontier under the present understanding of Vietnamese tactics. United States and Thai officials believe the Vietnamese forces along the frontier have no intention of violating more than border areas in efforts to lessen prospects of guerrilla reinforcement in Kampuchea. Thai leaders say they can handle such Vietnamese incursions and that their requirements to help beat back incursions are limited to extra supplies of tanks, artillery and ammunition.

At the same time, however. they want greater

world attention focused on the trouble Vietnam is causing them. The linkage emphasised by A.S.E.A.N. leaders and the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Mr Taiboys) between Soviet actions in Afghanistan and assistance given the Vietnamese, is said by diplomats to represent an effort to get as much global attention paid to events in Indo-China as to those in South Asia. Officials in Kuala Lumpur last week for the meeting of A.S.E.A.N. Foreign Ministers and those of the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Japan, said the emphasis would continue to be on means of finding a political settlement to the Indo-China question.

Thej r ruled out appeals to Thailand’s Pacific allies —the United States, Australia and New Zealand — for ground troop assistance.

The situation differs markedly from that of the 1960 s when any Communa ist threat to the Thai border was greeted by immediate calls for allied soldiers and airmen to beef up Thailand’s defences. Diplomats do not see any instant solution to the Indo-China conflict emerging. They say neither of the main parties involved, Vietnam and China, see

grounds for agreeing to a negotiating conference.

They say, however, that last week’d attack by Vietnamese forces across the Thai border did much to harden A.S.E.A.N. attitudes toward conciliatory statements made by he Hanoi government.