Chirac draws low-key response from Hawke

Press, 2 September 1986, Page 10

Chirac draws low-key response from Hawke

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney

The Australian Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, has refused to buy into a row with the French over a claim by his counterpart, Jacques Chirac, that his attitude to New Caledonia was “very stupid.”

The French Prime Minister’s remark came during an interview with Radio Australia in Noumea on Friday, and was backed on Sunday by similar comments when he spoke to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Mr Chirac’s visit to New Caledonia follows a move last month by South Pacific Forum countries, including New Zealand, to have the French territory reinscripted with the United Nations decolonisation committee.

He has reportedly blamed Australia for failing to block the forum move.

He said on Friday that

Mr Hawke was "very stupid” in his attitude to independence in New Caledonia, and that the Australian Prime Minister had shown a “complete misunderstanding of the issue.”

He said France had not had any problems with the Fraser Government, and was looking to a change in Government so relations between the two countries could improve. Mr Chirac is understood to be upset by a recent interview Mr Hawke gave in which he said that France had an obligation to ensure that its policies did not lead to bloodshed in the French territory.

Mr Hawke has made an uncharacteristic low-key reply to Mr Chirac’s criticism. "I don’t intend to respond in a similar fashion,” he said in Canberra.

Instead, he said only that Mr Chirac “has per-

mitted himself to depart from the normal manner of discourse between heads of Government of friendly countries. “The Australian Government has consistently acknowledged the difficulty and complexity of the issues which France faces in New Caledonia,” he said.

“Our wish is to help ensure that the problems along the path to independence are resolved peacefully in the interests of all inhabitants of its multi-racial society.”

Mr Hawke said that in spite of “recent events” such as continued French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, Australia wanted to continue constructive dialogue with France on matters of mutual interest. Last month the Government decided to revoke its ban on uranium sales to France, in spite of opposition from the Labour Party’s Left wing.