Frustration for Soviet envoy

Press, 30 July 1986, Page 1

Frustration for Soviet envoy

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington

The Soviet Ambassador to New Zealand, Mr Vladimir Bykov, was itching yesterday to state clearly and categorically that his Government would sign the protocols to the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone Treaty. His leader, Mr Gorbachev, had all but made the commitment that morning in Vladivostok in an important address on Soviet foreign policy in this part of the world.

Mr Gorbachev had declared Russia’s support for the zone and had urged all nuclear Powers to "guarantee Its status in a unilateral or multilateral way.”

It was a declaration that the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, was to welcome last evening although describing it as “rather what we had expected ... given earlier indications of the likely Soviet attitude.”

That, however, was later. Mr Bykov’s battle with temptation was fought in the afternoon at a well attended press conference at the Russian Embassy where the New Zealand news media were plied with wine, caviar, and copies of Mr Gorbachev’s speech. The questions were blunt Would the Soviet Union sign? Mr Bykov seemed confident it would but, sadly for Mr Bykov, was unable to give a “100 per cent” assurance. “Some time ago, I asked our people in Moscow direct, ‘Can I say

here in New Zealand to officials that the Soviet Union is prepared to sign?’ I will be frank; the answer was that we had not yet received the protocols for signing,” he said.

Also, it was possible amendments might be made at the South Pacific Forum in Suva next month. “You understand that in those circumstances to say today we shall sign it or not will be difficult for us,” he said. But his frustration was obvious. “I feel a little bit jealous when I read in the media that China is almost ready to do anything — to sign, to adopt, to approve ... “From what I know of the talks (on the issue) in Peking, in Moscow, in London, in Paris and in Washington ... personally I think the results were most foregone and strong-

est as concerned support for the treaty in Moscow. That is from the reports I read,” he said. The five nuclear Powers are being asked to sign two protocols, the first giving an undertaking that they will not use their nuclear weaponry against any of the signatories and the second, that they will not test any nuclear weapons in the zone. Mr Bykov said Mr Gorbachev’s offer of a guarantee was “very close to the answer that it will be 0.K.” with the first protocol and that the second should create no problems at all for Russia as it had never conducted tests in the South Pacific. “So you can make your own judgment,” he said. The timing of the Gorbachev speech, on the eve of the Suva Forum, created suspicions that it was intended as a propaganda tool to ease concern about the fishing deals the Soviet Union has conducted with Kiribati and is negotiating with Vanuatu, and to claim the moral high ground from the United States. Mr Bykov dismissed this as “simplistic,” saying the speech had been intended mostly for Russian domestic consumption and that its topic had been occasioned by Vladivostok’s position on Russia’s eastern seaboard. It was apparently Mr Gorbachev’s first visit as Secretary-General to Vladivostok and it was a significant speech full, as Mr Bykov said, of “new ideas.”