Senator ‘to help’ draft law

Press, 25 February 1986, Page 26

Senator ‘to help’ draft law

By

NANCY BENAC

Associated Press, through NZPA Washington A United States Democratic Senator, Mr Carl Levin, said yesterday that he planned to help New Zealand officials draft legislative language intended to defuse the nuclear weapons dispute threatening an end to military ties with the United States.

Mr Levin, just back from a visit to New Zealand, Australia, and the Philippines, said such a task was difficult, but he would make the effort because failure to reach agreement “would mean the end of the military relationship, and the (A.N.Z.U.S.) alliance would then be put on the shelf.”

The object of the suggested legislative language would be to allow officials in New Zealand to satisfy the policy against nuclear weapons without disclosing, by implication, the content of visiting United States ships.

New Zealand’s refusal to admit nuclear-armed warships to its ports means its commitments with the United States under A.N.Z.U.S. probably would be “placed on the shelf,” at least temporarily, Mr Levin said. “I think it is very sad and very dangerous, potentially, to us to have that relationship falter,” he said.

“The odds are against it (a solution), but it is not impossible.”

Mr Levin was accom-

panied on his Pacific visit by Senators David Boren and David Pryor.

Mr Levin said the disagreement came down to “very complicated issues involving some inconsistent policies between two good friends.” “No-one yet knows a way where both sides can be honest,” he said. “We don’t want to lie to them. On the other hand, we don’t disclose to anybody whether our ships have nuclear weapons. They don’t want to lie to themselves, but they don’t want nuclear weapons either.

“They have been a damn good ally, one of our best,” Mr Levin said. “That is why it is really worth trying to keep this alliance together.”