U.S. relieved at outcome

Press, 9 August 1985, Page 1

U.S. relieved at outcome

NZPA-AAP New York Banter and laughter marked a press briefing at which the United States State Department made public its attitude to the nuclear-free zone for the Pacific.

With a crack about getting the “message in a bottle” from the Cook Islands, a State Department spokesman, Bernard Kalb, indicated the relief with which the United States views the proposed treaty.

Administration officials were concerned that the draft treaty might limit the movements and flexibility of United States nuclear forces in the Pacific. But after reading reports about the text of the treaty adopted by the South Pacific Forum in Rarotonga, Administration officials said they were relieved to find it was as innocuous as they

had been led to expect during talks in Canberra last month.

The State Department’s initial reaction to the Forum’s adoption of a treaty to declare the Pacific nuclear-free was that the treaty did not endorse the New Zealand ban on American nuclear warships visiting its ports. “The zone concept reportedly leaves port access to individual States and does not interfere with transit and overflight rights of ships and aircraft under customary international law,” Mr Kalb said. Officials believe key areas of major concern to the Administration have been left unaffected by the treaty. As interpreted by Washington and Canberra, the treaty does not endorse New Zealand’s ban on port access for American warships.