Soviet overtures firmly rejected

Press, 28 August 1986, Page 1

Soviet overtures firmly rejected

Wellington reporter Both the Prime Minister, Mr Lange, and the--Opposition warned yesterday against Soviet overtures towards New Zealand. “The best co-operation we can have from thfe Soviet Union is to have their vessels as far away from New Zealand as ours are from Russia,” said Mr Lange. He also ruled out any form of military ' understanding with the Soviet Union. Mr Lange was responding to statements by the Soviet Union’s Deputy

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Mikhail Kapitsa. National’s spokesman on defence, Mr Doug Kidd, said Dr Kapitsa’s remarks revealed the sophisticated strategy the Russians were employing in the South Pacific. “Governments should beware the Soviet Polar Bear which is presenting itself in the South Pacific as a cuddly honey-eater,” he said. “We should all keep firmly in our minds that no nation has survived their embrace.” Mr Kidd described as outrageous Dr Kapitsa’s offer to sign an agree-

ment with New Zealand obliging the Russians to tell New Zealand when their warships were about.

"They have no legitimate national security interests in the region,” he said. “The message from the New Zealand Government should have been to tell them to stay out.”

Senior Soviet and United States visitors have now supported the idea that the super-Powers will sign protocols to the South Pacific nuclear-free zone treaty.

Dr Kapitsa said the Soviet Union would sign the protocols after more South Pacific countries ratified the treaty. The treaty has so far drawn signatures from 10 of the 13 South Pacific Forum countries. Exceptions are Tonga, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. Only four have ratified the treaty — the Cook Islands, Niue, Fiji, and Tuvalu — and action by four more is needed to validate it. The chairman of the United States Senate Foreign Relations Com-

mittee, Senator Richard Lugar, said that the United States was considering the protocols “very seriously” and would make a decision before the end of the year.

“It appears that these are protocols that we will find acceptable in due course,” he said. Senator Lugar met Mr Lange for an hour yesterday and said afterwards that A.N.Z.U.S. was not discussed. Less than three weeks after the United States withdrew its security commitment to New Zealand after 34 years of A.N.Z.U.S. co-operation, Senator Lugar said, “That chapter is concluded.”