N.Z., Danish nuclear policies differ

Press, 28 July 1986, Page 7

N.Z., Danish nuclear policies differ

PA Wellington Both New Zealand and Denmark have a stated policy of banning nuclear weapons from their territories but they differ in important ways on how this policy is implemented, reports the “Evening Post.” The comparison with Denmark comes after claims by both the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, and his deputy, Mr Palmer, that the Danes had been accommodated in their anti-nuclear desires by the United States but had refused the same treatment for New Zealand. The United States Embassy in Wellington issued a statement on Friday denying the latest New Zealand comparison of New Zealand with Denmark, made by Mr Palmer in Scotland, on Wednesday. The Danish Foreign Minister, Mr Elleman Jensen, said that the New Zealand and Danish policies on nuclear weapons correspond “insofar as neither New Zealand nor Denmark allows the presence of nuclear weapons on their territory in peacetime.” That was where the similarity began and ended, reported the “Post” defence reporter, Roger Mackey. The Danish ban on nuclear weapons applied only in peacetime. The Nevf Zea-

land legislation to enshrine the nuclear weapon ban made no distinction, in its crucial clauses, between war and peace.

When he spoke to the "Post” earlier this month from his base in Canberra, the Danish Ambassador to New Zealand, Mr Erling Birger Abrahamson, said, “We have a policy of not admitting nuclear weapons on Danish territory in time of peace. We know that foreign Powers know that and we expect that this policy would be respected by our friends.”

Mr Abrahamson said that Denmark did not ask countries such as the United States whether their ships were nucleararmed because “we do not wish an expression of distrust to hang in the air between allies by asking questions.”

Denmark is also a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, an alliance that, unlike A.N.Z.U.S., makes explicit use of a policy of nuclear deterrence.

Since adopting its antinuclear policy the New Zealand Government has turned down the only ship visit proposed by the United States. The ship proposed was the 25-year-old U.S.S. Buchanan, a guided missile destroyer. Among its weapons were ASROC, a system used primarily against hub-

marines that can be both conventionally armed and nuclear-armed.

Among the 11 United States warships to visit Danish ports in 1985 were the U.S.S. lowa, a reactivated battleship built in 1940, and the U.S.S. Ticonderoga, a modern guided missile cruiser built in 1980.

The Ticonderoga was fitted with ASROC and the lowa was fitted with the sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missile which comes in both conventional and nuclear-armed forms. In the New Zealand case the present legislation would force a New Zealand Prime Minister to make a judgment about each ship an ally such as the United States asks to bring to this country. The Danish policy requires no such judgment The Danish policy at no stage challenges the United States policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence or absence of nuclear weapons in its ships. The New Zealand policy requires an obvious judgment by the Prime Minister of the day on whether a ship is nuclear-armed.

The Danes also allowed port visits by nuclearpowered ships in time of peace. The New Zealand legislation would ban any such visits, the “Post” reported.