N.Z. frigate might be asked to visit Japan

Press, 3 July 1985, Page 28

N.Z. frigate might be asked to visit Japan

NZPA staff correspondent Hong Kong The friendship visit to Auckland and Wellington next month by two Japanese naval vessels is likely to set the stage for a visit to Japan by a New Zealand frigate and possible joint exercises, says the “Far Eastern Economic Review.” The report, in the July 4 issue of the weekly regional news magazine, said the Japanese destroyer Makigumo and the training ship Katori would visit New Zealand next month. New Zealand had exercised with Japan in the Rimpac joint naval manoeuvres, along with the United States, Canada and Australia, the report said. But New Zealand was unlikely to participate in further Rimpac exercises because of American refusal

to hold manoeuvres with New Zealand in view of Wellington’s non-nuclear ship visits policy. exercises independently with non-nuclear Japanese warships, Wellington believes, would enhance its own non-nuclear position,” the “Review” said. In another report, the “Review” said Japan’s defence build-up was being pursued more aggressively and /that its defence relationship with the United States seemed closer than ever. After a visit by the direc-tor-general of the Japan Defence Agency, Koichi Kato, to Washington last month, defence officials seemed to be systematically leaking information on the next mid-term build-up, accustoming the public to the idea of a bigger national

arsenal. Press reports, undisputed by the Government, had ventured that the 1986-90 build-up would cost about $U577.75 billion ($165,607 billion), a 6 to 7 per cent annual build-up. It had already been predicted at the beginning of 1985 that the once sacred limit on defence spending of 1 per cent of gross national

product would be broken this year by the October wage order for defence personnel. A United States defence strategist in Tokyo was quoted by the “Review” as saying Mr Kato had “ratcheted” the build-up process higher by bringing out new procurement goals in Washington not previously mentioned.