Plea for Pacific Island forum

Press, 15 January 1986, Page 24

Plea for Pacific Island forum

PA Wellington A forum of Pacific Island countries was needed to develop closer future cooperation for the region, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr McLay, has said. However, such a forum would need to emphasise cooperation in the future, rather than seek only to solve present problems, he said.

Regional co-operation would become increasingly important with the growth and complexity of Pacific economies, he told the Pacific and Asian Affairs Council in Hawaii. That would not only lead to competitive pressures and tensions but also converging interests based on shared problems and opportunities, he said.

Any moves towards a Pacific community would have to concentrate on cooperation and consultation in dealing with the real and identifiable problems of trade, economic interdependence and security. Mr McLay warned, however, that such a body must not only serve political and strategic interests of the main powers but must also

be in accord with interests of other groupings such as the South Pacific Forum and A.S.E.A.N. There were also concerns that a Pacific community might end up being merely an association of nations' allied with the United States and thereby affronting and alienating other countries. .

A.S.E.A.N. countries had expressed long standing reservations that their effectiveness, solidarity and identity could be undermined by a Pacific community. “If smaller countries are to be persuaded to support such a concept they must be satisfied that it would not lead to economic or trade dependence on one or two of the Pacific.’s really powerful economies.

“Nor can it be another vehicle for super-Power rivalry,” he said. Mr McLay said that there was already.a community of interests in the Pacific, political and strategic as well as economic.

However, so far the dif-. ferent Pan-Pacific organisations, both Governmental and non-Governmental, had had only limited success in dealing with the region’s many problems such as trade protectionism, economic inter-dependence, industrial restructuring and security. ' ; He also touched on the issue, saying that he hoped the present differences between New Zealand and the United States did not result in a termination of the alliance.

A.N.Z.U.S. was not just important to New Zealand which could not defend itself, he said. However, as the Pacific became more significant in global terins it would be more important for the United States to have Pacific friends that shared its traditions, culture and values, he said. Mr McLay. made the speech during a three-week holiday in Hawaii visiting his wife’s family.