Britain to join Rimpac — report

Press, 18 December 1985, Page 35

Britain to join Rimpac — report

PETER O’HARA

By

NZPA staff correspondent London The “Observer” newspaper has reinforced claims by the Opposition spokesman on defence, Mr Douglas Kidd, that Britain would take part next year in the defence exercise, Rimpac.

Mr Kidd said New Zealand had been dropped from the exercise because of its anti-nuclear stance and instead the British would join the Americans, Canadians and Australians.

The defence correspondent for the “Observer,” lan Mather, wrote from Tokyo: “Next year Britain is due to take part for the first time in an exercise called Rimpac (Pacific Rim). “The aircraft carrier Invincible is to be dispatched in mid-April to join a flotilla of more than 50 ships from the United States, Canada and Australia, which will sail from the American west coast and conduct a mock . attack against Hawaii. “New Zealand has

specifically not been invited as a result of the row over its refusal to allow American warships carrying nuclear weapons to enter its harbours.”

British defence spokesmen would not say two weeks ago whether a decision had been made to take part in the exercise, but they ridiculed suggestions that the United Kingdom would replace New Zealand, saying Britain would not act as a “surrogate” for another country.

, Mather’s article also said the Soviet Union’s Far East fleet “has overtaken its northern fleet in size, indicating a significant shift of emphasis from Europe to the Pacific, according to official Japanese sources.” He said’ the number of warships and submarines based in the Soviet Far East was now 520 compared with 466 in the Kola Peninsula facing N.A.T.0., where the Russians had maintained their biggest fleet until recently.