N.A.T.O. allies uneasy

Press, 14 April 1984, Page 10

N.A.T.O. allies uneasy

By

JOHN ROGERS,

of

Reuters (through NZPA) London United States support for the rebel mining of Nicaraguan ports has added another issue to a growing list on which the Reagan Adminstration and N.A.T.O. allies are out of step. France, Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Canada voiced varying degrees of concern over the planting of mines and reported participation not officially confirmed, of the Central Intelligence Agency. The European reaction was less severe than the outburst of European condemnation which greeted the United Staes-led invasion of Grenada in October. But the mining revived unease among American’s N.A.T.O. allies over United States military entanglement in Central America and backing for Right-wing rebels fighting Nicaragua’s Left-wing Government. West European diplomats saw the Nicaragua mining row as just one more source of friction in Atlantic relations, rather than as a serious upset for United StatesEuropean friendship. “The Americans know that the allies support the United States on its broader aims in Central America, the establishment of peace and democracy,” one said. “We support American economic aid. The problem

is that it is less visible than the military aspect.” Diplomats said that the Reagan Administration would be more worried about strong United States Congressional condemnation of the mining. The French External Relations Minister, Mr Claude Cheysson, speaking last week on United States links with the European Economic Community, said that there were no serious differences on important issues although different foreign policy approaches to act as an irritant. “When things get difficult, we all stand together,” he told a conference in Belgium. But allied opposition to the mining, on top of condemnation by leading Latin American States, amounted to a considerable international outcry.

France and the Netherlands voted last week for a Nicaraguan resolution in the United Nations Security Council, which the United States vetoed, calling for an immediate end to the mining.

France said that it was ready to help clear the mines, although the Government in Paris appeared reluctant to get into a public row with Washington soon after a successful State visit there by the President, Mr Francois Mitterrand. Britain’s Conservative

Government, Mr Reagan's staunchest European ally, protested to Washington over the planting of mines as a threat to international navigation. Spain lodged a formal protest on Thursday. Canada’s Acting Secretary of External Affairs, Mr Gerald Regan, said that Ottawa had urged the United States to respect international law in Central America and was concerned about increased military activity in Nicaragua. West Germany voiced no public criticism. But officials said privately that they shared British and French concern over dangers the mining posed to international shipping and were uneasy about United States actions in Central America. A senior West German Opposition figure, HansJuergen Wischnewski, called on the Bonn Government to condemn the mining as “tantamount to an act of undeclared war.” The Nicaragua mining row came after a series of misgiving in European countries — usually among Opposition politicians but sometimes in Government ranks as well — over Mr Reagan’s foreign policy. N.A.T.O.’s basing of American medium-range missiles in Western Europe last year was accomplished after a bitter debate in

which European Governments had to fend off Opposition allegations that Mr Reagan was not serious in seeking arms control accords with Moscow. The invasion of Grenada sparked widespread criticism in Western Europe and outright condemnation by some allies. Mrs Jeane Kirkpatrick, made it clear this week that the United States Administration feared European criticism of American foreign policy actions could undermine the alliance. In a speech in London, she hit out at uneven European attidues towards Nicaragua. Some politicians were ready to criticise United States actions there and overlook those of Cuban and Soviet bloc advisers. She voiced disquiet at what she called a tendency in Europe to regard the Soviet Union and the United States as moral equals in foreign policy methods. She was especially critical of politicans who equated United States actions in Grenada with Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in 1979. “If the opinion that the United States is a lawless, reckless gunslinger spreads widely enough, the alliance will simply collapse by mutual consent of distrust on the European side and disgust on the American side,” Mrs Kirkpatrick said.