Pacific co-operation backed

Press, 13 July 1984, Page 4

Pacific co-operation backed

NZPA staff correspondent Jakarta

New Zealand and four other Pacific countries concluded their annual meeting in Jakarta with the Association of South East Asian Nations by fully endorsing the association’s proposal to launch a human resources development campaign for Pacific co-operation, a spokesman said. The spokeman and Indonesia’s Foreign Minister, Dr Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, said the 11 countries, which included Japan and the United States, would take steps needed to implement the programme. “Senior officials will meet soon to work out details,” he said.

Dr Mochtar reiterated earlier comments by A.S.E.A.N. Ministers that there was no intention to set up an institutionalised Pacific basin community and said this view was also shared by the five Pacific countries with which the association has annual dialogues. Instead the intention was to develop the potential of human resources through training and education programmes. The Minister of Defence and State, Mr Thomson, who represented New Zealand at the meeting, has already said that New Zealand would favour such an approach to developing Pacific cg-operation. Thfe association yesterday

told New Zealand and its other dialogue partners that too much time had been spent previously discussing the Kampuchean problem during its annual meetings. While the Vietnamese occupation of Kampuchea was still recognised as an important issue, attention should not be diverted from pressing economic issues of common interest, Dr Mochtar said.

“Recent developments clearly indicate the growing importance of the Pacific in the world economy,” he said.

Although the world economic situation had been adversely affected by the prolonged recession, t the economies of many

nations had shown their resilience and had grown remarkably compared with the other regions of the world, he said.

A.S.E.A.N. groups Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and newly independent Brunei, which has been taking part in the meetings for the first time this year. The dialogue partners, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States, with the European Economic Community were scheduled to meet jointly and in bilateral talks yesterday and today. Papua New Guinea also attends the talks as an observer.