Mr Lange rejects French argument

Press, 24 October 1984, Page 3

Mr Lange rejects French argument

PA Wellington The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, said yesterday that French nuclear testing in the Pacific was vigorously and unanimously opposed by all countries in the region, not just New Zealand. France accused New Zealand in the United Nations yesterday of trying to make a political issue of nuclearweapon testing by the French.

Mr Lange said that New Zealand was opposed to nuclear testing everywhere, “but we are particularly concerned about French testing, precisely because it takes place in the South

Pacific where we live. “The French Government can hardly be surprised if we, whose future lies in this part of the world, express ourselves with some vigour.”

He said that the only political issue New Zealand was making was that the whole of the South Pacific was vigorously and unanimously opposed to nuclear testing by France. The French delegate to the United Nations’ main political committee, Mr Francois de la Goree, said that New Zealand’s objections to nuclear testing had nothing to do ,with New Zealand’s concern for the

environment. “New Zealand is opposing France’s fundamental right (to weapon testing) out of a desire for political revindication, to score political points in an argument which France was not the only nation using the South Pacific as a test site, but it was the only country that had invited international inspection of the area to vouch for the safety of the experiments, he said. The tests were not a risk to peace or a threat to the security of any State. However, they were of paramount v importance to France’s own security, Mr de la Goree said.