THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1981. Pacific meeting

Press, 19 August 1981, Page 22

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1981. Pacific meeting

■. Vanuatu, the former New Hebrides, was the host of the twelfth'South F° rum .'thi s year, it was inevitable I? a • 9 ues^On ' self-determination of the French territories in the Pacific would become an- important issue. • The New Hebrides was formerly governed partly by the French. .The . focus of much of the. discussion was New Caledonia. Of the Heads ’ - of- , Government attending the meeting, the New Zealand and Fijian Prime Ministers* had already met the new President, Mr Francois Mitterrand, and both had the impression that he . was rather more sympathetic .- to general Pacific aspirations than was his. predecessor,. Mr Valery Giscard d’Estaing. Some of the countries close to New Caledonia felt strongly about the independence of New Caledonia; in the end, the .South Pacific Fortim arrived at a resolution that was moderate and would be conveyed, in due time, to Mr Mitterrand, by a delegation of two people. France’s general relationship with the Pacific is complex. It is a member of the South Pacific Commission and it has extensive territories: French Polynesia as well ;as New Caledonia. It still tests nuclear weapons in the Pacific. There was a proposal before the South Pacific Forum to merge two of the regional institutions, which might mean that France would be excluded from access to the forum countries; but France’s aid, if that came to an end, would be sorely missed. The forum countries, after calling for many years for an end to French nuclear testing in the Pacific, made references to France again this year; but the reference to dumping nuclear wastes in the Pacific was directed at Japan. The United States was included in the objection. The forum countries have generally given France up as a hopeless case over testing..

The South Pacific Forum discussed the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Melbourne in September, regional security, and a marine survey planned by the. Soviet Union. Australia explained that it hoped that the Melbourne meeting would deal with issues of the North-South dialogue. It is. likely that the

plight, of some of the poorer Pacific countries will be included in the discussions that Australia hopes for at Melbourne. A suggestion that a regional security force should be set up needs caution. It is true that the force from Papua New Guinea which restored order in Vanuatu just after independence was a demonstration of regional action; the wider use of such a force is fraught with danger. What would happen, for example, if a Pacific politician called for the intervention of such a force to maintain himself in power? Politicians are not always at their soundest in distinguishing between threats to their own power and threats to their country. The replacement of a proposed marine survey by the Soviet Union in Solomon ■ Islands and:.-Vanuatu waters by a survey conducted by the United States, New Zealand, and Australia, may be seen as both a slight to the Soviet Union and an example of regional action.

The South Pacific Forum also dealt with regional co-operation and the Pacific Forum Line. It looked for ways of helping the islands which are without particular aid from New Zealand or Australia. These are Kiribati, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Tonga. Their position differs markedly from such countries as Papua New Guinea, Niue, and the Cook Islands. The Pacific Forum Line fared-better this year than last at the South Pacific Forum. The old division of Australia and Fiji on the one side against the rest appears •to have broken down. Australia made $1.5 million available for containers for the Pacific Forum Line and this should help the line to develop more economically. New Zealand is still picking up the tab from past debts. The island countries in the forum also agreed to co-ordinate their, policies on energy' matters. All the problems associated with the new trade agreement, which includes New Zealand, Australia, and all the other Pacific countries, appear to have been resolved. The South Pacific Forum has lasted for 10 years. Although this is no guarantee of permanence, the forum is an organisation which has grown out of the needs of the region and it is probably irreplaceable.