THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1986. Blind to defence realities

Press, 13 August 1986, Page 20

THE PRESS WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 13, 1986. Blind to defence realities

There are none so blind as those who will not see when something distasteful is held in front of them. “In effect, nothing has changed,” the Prime Minister said yesterday. He was considering New Zealand’s relationship with the United States, under the A.N.Z.U.S. agreement, over the last two years. Mr Lange is wrong. A great deal has changed. New Zealand has come close to isolation from all its former friends and allies in the Western world.

The United States Secretary of State, Mr Shultz, has said, “It has become impossible for the United States to sustain its security obligations to New Zealand.” That is the outcome of the Labour Government’s ban on visits by nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered ships. Mr Lange may argue that the A.N.Z.U.S. document never promised more than a right to consultation in the face of a threat to New Zealand.

In practice it had come to mean very much more — a close, frequent, working relationship between New Zealand’s armed services and security services, and those of Australia and the United States. Links with Australia remain, although the relationship is much less easy; links with the United States have gone.

Faced with a security crisis, Mr Lange and his Government might well attempt still to invoke the A.N.Z.U.S. right to seek help from the United States. They no longer have an assurance they would be listened to. Any American action would depend not on any obligation that the United States once felt under A.N.Z.U.S. to be ready to consult in the event of a perceived threat to security, but on an American appraisal of where its own interests lay.

Even Australia’s response to New Zealand’s interests is no longer assured. The Australian Minister of Defence said yesterday that his country understood the American action; it disagreed completely with New Zealand’s policy. Australia retained its "traditional bilateral security relationship” with New Zealand because New Zealand was an old friend.

More tellingly, the Minister added, “and

because such co-operation is important to Australia’s own defence interests.” Australia can be expected to put its own interests first; its interest in maintaining close defence links with the United States second; and concern for New Zealand will run a very poor third. The only comfort that New Zealand has from this is in the likelihood that if ever a threat to Australia eventuated, the security of New Zealand against a similar threat would be important to Australia too.

On the basis of the General Election result in 1984, Mr Lange and his colleagues argue that a majority of New Zealanders then did not want visits by nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships, whether from the United States or any other country. Neither then nor now would they maintain that a majority of New Zealanders want an end to the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance. Nor is there clear evidence of how New Zealanders would choose between the alternatives — no nuclear ships, or no A.N.Z.U.S. Probably, like the Government, many New Zealanders would want to have it both ways. In a considered and reasonable manner, over many months, the United States has explained that such an outcome is not possible. Either New Zealand is a reliable and active member of A.N.Z.U.S., or it can no longer depend on alliance membership for its security. The treaty may remain in formal existence. For practical purposes, it no longer works.

Out with the nuclear ships, New Zealand | has tossed its special trading relationships with the United States, its special access to I American policy-makers, and its voice as a ■ small, but valuable and respected member of [the Western system of alliances.

That, surely, was not what the Government intended. Unless the Prime Minister decides to sweep aside the findings of the Defence Review Committee when these are made public in the next few days, the Government still has an opportunity to reconsider its position. The alternative for New Zealand is a lonely, exposed, and ineffectual isolation.