Govt not embarrassed, says Mr Lange

Press, 3 December 1985, Page 9

Govt not embarrassed, says Mr Lange

PA Wellington The Government was not embarrassed by the visit of the Nicaraguan Foreign Affairs Minister, the Rev. Father Miguel d’Escoto, said the Prime Minster, Mr Lange, yesterday. The visit comes at a time when New Zealand-United States relations are strained by the nuclear-ship row. Mr Lange will not meet Father d’Escoto, but the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance had nothing to do with that decision, Mr Lange told a post-Cabinet press conference.

He had been asked if the present strained relations with Washington had anything to do with his not seeing Father d’Escoto — an implied reference that such a meeting might be seen as provocative to the Americans, who are backing rebels trying to overthrow the Nicaraguan regime.

Mr Lange also dismissed any parallels between the

two countries’ relations with the United States.

The Left-wing Nicaraguan Government is fighting United States-backed rebels seeking its overthow. “We are not the subject of a United States-funded corps of military people designed to bring down a Government,” Mr Lange said. “Nor are we the subject of a United States (trade) embargo.”

When Father d’Escoto arrived in Wellington on Sunday, the local Latin America Committee condemned Mr Lange for not meeting him. However, Father d’Escoto said he had met Mr Lange recently at the United Nations.

Mr Lange said Father d’Escoto was a guest of the Government, but the visit had been made at the Nicaraguan Minister’s request. Father d’Escoto had proposed coming to Australia and New Zealand this month and the Government had done exactly what it

would with any visiting Foreign Minister. Mr Lange said he did not see every visiting Foreign Minister. It had not been a matter of concern to the United States that he had not seen the Swedish Foreign Minister.

Mr Lange said Nicaragua was not on “short, medium or currently long-term planning” for the opening of a diplomatic post. “That is not to say that we should not have sensible relations with a country that is a small nation. It is simply that we do not have within our resources the capacity to have diplomatic posts in all countries in the world.” Father d’Escoto addressed a ' meeting at Parliament yesterday for Government members and people from the Labour Party’s head office.

He also met the Minister of Overseas Trade, Mr Moore, and was guest at a luncheon at which the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr O’Flynn, was host.