P.M. seems hopeful of treaty

Press, 7 August 1985, Page 1

P.M. seems hopeful of treaty

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Rarotonga

The Prime Minister, Mi Lange, emerged from the first day of the Rarotonga Forum confident that the South Pacific nuclear-free zone treaty will be adopted. In his capacity as forum spokesman, he announced that substantial agreement on the proposal could well be achieved at today’s meeting. The item came up for discussion towards the end of yesterday’s session. Only six Governments have had the opportunity to speak to it. Mr Lange said that of those, five had supported the adoption of the treaty and one had indicated a reluctance to sign at this stage. But, he said, there

was no evidence so far of any country not being amenable to endorsing the document. The region it would cover runs from the Equator in the north to the 60th parallel of latitude in the south. To the west it links with the Latin American nuclearfree zone. It would prohibit the signatories from acquiring, storing, deploying, or testing nuclear weaponry but would respect the international law of the sea and would leave each nation to determine its own ports policy. These prohibitions would extend to the dumping of radioactive waste and to nuclear explosions even for peaceful purposes. The treaty is based on a mandate laid down at last year’s forum and sprang

from an initiative by the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, who needs it to appease the Left wing of his Labour Party at home. The idea was first raised by New Zealand in 1973. A working party was set up to draw up a draft agreement for consideration this year. Attached to it are three protocols which will be offered to salient countries outside the zone for signature. The first of these asks metropolitan nations to apply the basic restrictions in their South Pacific territories — Britain to Pitcairn Island, the United States to American Samoa, and France to New Caledonia in French Polynesia. The second and third will be referred to the five big

nuclear Powers, Britain, the United States, France, China, and Russia. They will be asked not to use their nuclear weaponry against any of the treaty’s signatories and not to test any nuclear devices within the zone. Asked who would take the protocols round for signing, Mr Lange said it was proposed but not yet determined that a representative group of officials be assigned to take them round the various capital cities. He did not seem to expect trouble from any Power except France, and with France mostly on the test prohibition. Clearly Mr Lange regards the treaty as a means of putting pressure on France to stop its Mururoa programme. He said that if it did not sign the protocol on

testing it would be “in a minority of one in the nuclear club.” The forum recognised that France would have “reservations,” he said. Notwithstanding this the speakers so far had generally accepted that there was a logic in committing the 13 member South Pacific nations to the discipline of the zone. “That would in itself be a huge development and a much needed one,” Mr Lange said. He acknowledged that the proposal did not go as far as some in the peace movement would want, but said it was “a substantial step on the way to averting a nuclear escalation.” It is unlikely, however, that the treaty will be signed today. Endorsement

in principle is probably the most that can be expected as some forum representatives are thought to want clarification on important points and others do not have the authority to sign. Mr Lange said that if it was not signed “in the formal sense of sticking your monicker on it,” it would still have a meaning. “If it is endorsed by this forum then it has a vitality which can be tested round the protocol circuit,” he said. He dismissed out of hand the possibility that the whole policy would be torpedoed, quoting the strength of commitment shown at yesterday’s session. The fact is that it aims at a broad acceptability, which means that opinion at both extremes will need to be reconciled.