N.Z. would not learn to love the bomb: P.M.

Press, 2 January 1985, Page 4

N.Z. would not learn to love the bomb: P.M.

NZPA-AAP Canberra New Zealand did not seek to have a strike capacity or to be defended by nuclear weapons, said the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, yesterday. “We are not going to have nuclear weapons in New Zealand and we are not going to learn to love the bomb,” he said on Channel Nine’s television programme, “Today.” He said the United States had assured New Zealand that it would not impose trade or economic sanctions over the nuclear ships issue, and he had told the Americans that the New Zealand policy was not directed against the American Navy. Mr Lange said conventional vessels would be welcome. He added that New Zealand would not change its opposition to visits by nuclear armed or powered ships. Pressure for nuclear disarmament and de-escala-tion of the arms race had become so powerful it had finally brought the Soviets and the Americans to the negotiating table, he said.

“It would be an awful irony if at the time when the climate for running armaments down is just building up, my Government should decide to change its stance and welcome nuclear weapons to New Zealand,” he said. “The Government simply is not going to do that.”

Mr Lange said he believed that Australia understood New Zealand’s position on A.N.Z.U.S., just as

New Zealand understood Australia's position. New Zealand had a different history, he said. Australia had a different defence structure and had bases from other countries, he said. “I don't expect them to conform to our position but I know that they will be anxious to talk with us, in their own right as Australia, and not as some messenger of another country,” he said.