N.Z. peace hopes outlined

Press, 22 October 1984, Page 5

N.Z. peace hopes outlined

NZPA staff correspondent Washington Signs during the last few weeks had given New Zealand hope for a slowdown in the nuclear arms race, the deputy permanent representative, Mr William Mansfield, has told the United Nation’s first committee. “We are encouraged by the proposals made by President Reagan in his address to the (General) Assembly,” he said, “and hope that these ideas might prepare the way for serious discussions leading to reduction in nuclear armaments.

“New Zealand also hopes that the professed willingness of both the United

States and the Soviet Union to enter into negotiations on outer space will be followed up and will lead to an agreement that will enhance the security and stability of all countries. “If small countries are unable directly to hasten the pace of arms reductions, they are able to argue the case for particular measures that might lead to concrete steps to halt and reverse the arms race.”

For many years New Zealand’s main effort in the disarmament field has been its advocacy of a comprehensive test ban treaty. A comprehensive test ban continued to be a primary goal

for the New Zealand Government, Mr Mansfield said. New Zealand wanted all nuclear testing stopped, not just French testing. “France should, however, have no doubt that its nuclear tests in the South Pacific are a central concern to all Governments in the region,” Mr Mansfield said.

New Zealand would continue to work with its South Pacific neighbours at the United Nations and in other international bodies to halt testing by France, he said. New Zealand intended to participate in the upcoming Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty Review Conference

and hoped strongly that it would lead to a strengthening of the treaty and of the safeguard systems it depended on, he said. It also supported a Norwegian proposal that a review conference of the Biological Weapons Convention be held in 1986, and it would work to broaden the coverage of the Environmental Modification Convention. New Zealand believed enough suggestions had been put forward to allow progress on the establishment of a comprehensive convention to ban the production, employment, and use of chemical weapons.