Soviet Union calls on Pacific nations for co-operation

Press, 30 July 1986, Page 8

Soviet Union calls on Pacific nations for co-operation

By

PATRICIA HERBERT

in Wellington

The Soviet Union wants to expand its ties with New Zealand as part of a new political offensive to enhance its influence in the Pacific and Asia.

The Soviet SecretaryGeneral, Mr Gorbachev, announced the Initiative yesterday in an important speech at Vladivostok, a naval base on Russia’s eastern seaboard.

The timing of the announcement suggested it was aimed at influencing the South Pacific Forum, to be held next week in Suva, but the Russian Embassy in Wellington re-

jected this as “simplistic.”

Presenting the push as peaceful, Mr Gorbachev said the Soviet State called on all Asian and Pacific nations for cooperation for the sake of peace and security. “Everyone who is striving for these goals, who hopes for a better future for their peoples, will find us to be benevolent Interlocutors and honest partners,” he said. "We are In favour of building together new, fair relations.” In this context, he said Russia was prepared to strengthen Its bonds not only with New Zealand but also with Indonesia, Australia the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Burma, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Brunei, the Mai-, dives and the newly Independent smaller States.

With some of these, it already had dilomatic relations — Papua New Guinea, Western Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, he said. Specific proposals he made were: • That a conference be called of all countries “gravitating toward” the Pacific Ocean. He conceded this was “a rather remote possibility,” however, and seemed not to be proposing it seriously, as he suggested Hiroshima as a venue.

“Why should not that city, the first victim of the nuclear evil, become the Helsinki of sorts for Asia and the Pacific Ocean?” he asked.

Why not indeed, especially as the United States dropped the bomb on it. • That the possession of military bases in the region be renounced and troops withdrawn from foreign territories. In support of this, he announced that Russia would withdrew six regiments from Afghanistan before the end of this year — one armoured regiment, two motorised rifle regiments, and three anti-aircraft regiments.

“These units will be returned to the areas of their deployment in the Soviet Union and in such

a way that those who take an interest in this could easily ascertain,” he said. He said, however, that this “unilateral step” by Russia must be answered by “the curtailment of outside influence in . the affairs of the democratic republic of Afghanistan.” Conversely he pledged that should the United States give up its military presence in the Philippines, Russia would not leave that step unanswered. . © That talks be held on the reduction of nucleararmed ship activity in the Pacific and that they be excluded altogether from “certain zones” as "a con-ference-building measure.” © That talks be resumed to turn the Indian Ocean into a "peace zone.” Mr Gorbachev also declared Soviet support for the South Pacific NuclearFree Zone Treaty and urged all nuclear Powers “to guarantee its status in a unilateral or multi-lat-eral way.” He acknowledgegd that Russia could not achieve its objectives in the Pacific without the participation of the United States as a great Pacific Power with important and legitimate economic and political interests in the region.

Yet Mr Gorbachev’s speech was far from conciliatory towards the United States. Rather, it was provocative.

"So far, regrettably, Washington has not shown interest in this. It is not even thinking of a serious talk on the Pacific subject,” he said. Instead, he alleged it was leading the debate dowri "the well trodden path of the ‘Soviet threat*

and to sabre-rattling to corroborate the myth." He was also implicitly critical of the United States in referring to “pressure on New Zealand” which, although he did not specify, was clearly a reference to the A.N.Z.U.S. dispute.