U.S. warships believed disarmed for China

Press, 8 November 1986, Page 8

U.S. warships believed disarmed for China

NZPA correspondent Hong Kong

A Chinese Government spokesman in Peking has hinted strongly that the three United States warships now visiting China are not carrying nuclear weapons.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Ma Yuzhen, said, “as we have stated before, China’s policy is not to allow foreign ships carrying nuclear weapons to make port calls to China.”

Mr Ma said the visit of the three warships to

Qingdao was a good-will courtesy call.

The commander of the United States Pacific Fleet, Admiral James Lyons, was equally noncommittal when he gave a press conference in Qingdao this week. He was asked how the United States policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons in warships had been changed to allow the visit to take place.

“Well, as you know, the policy of the United States

is to neither confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons aboard our naval vessels. That is our policy,” Admiral Lyons replied. Like Mr Ma, he declined to elaborate further.

But diplomats in Hong Kong said Peking and Washington had very likely reached an agreement that the guided-mis-sile cruiser U.S.S. Reeves, the destroyer U.S.S. 01dendorf, and the guidedmissile frigate U.S.S. Rentz would not carry

nuclear weapons during the visit.

The diplomats said it was very likely that Britain, which also has a neither confirm nor deny policy, reached a similar tacit agreement with China to enable Royal Navy warships to visit Shanghai in July. The visit is the first by the United States Navy to a Chinese port since the Communist victory of 1949.

During the last two years the United States has refused to give the New Zealand Government, which also has an anti-nuclear policy, assurances that prospective visiting warships would not be nuclear-armed/

In August this year New Zealand was effectively suspended from the 35-year-old A.N.Z.U.S. Treaty because of the port ban on nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered warships.

Admiral Lyons said at his press conference that the United States wanted to assist the Chinese military in modernising its forces in order to improve self-defence capabilities. "I firmly believe that a more modernised China and an improved selfdefence capability will be a positive element in maintaining regional stability,” he said.

The three United States warships will end their week-long visit to Qingdao on Tuesday.