N.Z. support for N-plan?

Press, 12 May 1984, Page 8

N.Z. support for N-plan?

NZPA staff correspondent Canberra The New Zealand Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, might see political advantage in supporting a nuclear-weapons free zone in the south-west Pacific, a defence conference in Canberra was told yesterday. Mr Greg Fry, of the Australian National University’s strategic and defence

studies centre, said he thought New Zealand could “reluctantly” go along with an Australian proposal to prohibit the testing, storage, acquisition, and deployment of nuclear weapons in the south-west Pacific. He said the main objectives of the zone — to prohibit dumping and testing — were consistent with New Zealand’s stated (nuclear) policy.

“The Muldoon Government has been a prominent critic of French testing and has supported (South Pacific) Forum condemnations of plans to dump radioactive wastes in the Pacific,” said Mr Fry. That left only one possible objection New Zealand could have to the zone, that it would not achieve anything, he said. “Although Sir Robert took

this position at the 1983 Forum, such an objection would be unlikely to be pressed too far if all other States in the region are in favour of the proposal. “Thus on balance I would suggest. that New Zealand could reluctantly go along with the proposal,” he said. Mr Fry said that there was a group of people who wanted to ban all nuclear weapons in the region while retaining a security alliance with the United States. The Leader of the New Zealand Labour Party, Mr Lange, would fit into that category. “This is a particularly appealing position for a Labour politician trying to steer a middle course between an idealistic antinuclear party and a predominantly pro-A.N.Z.U.S. electorate. Earlier reports, page 13