Defence White Paper to focus on South Pacific

Press, 26 February 1987, Page 3

Defence White Paper to focus on South Pacific

By

BRENDON BURNS

in Wellington The 1987 Defence White paper will be released today with the focus on links with Australia and the South Pacific. ! Release of the paper, prepared by Government officials, marks another step in the Labour Government’s effort to produce a defence policy which ties in with its ban on nuclear-ship visits. i The Minister of De-

fence, Mr O’Flynn, said the White Paper would focus on New Zealand’s future needs and would mark an important turn-ing-point from the policies of a past era. “Our focus is increasingly in the South Pacific Our defence requirements and' the tasks of the Armed Services must reflect that” A key element of the White Paper is close cooperation with Australia, with which New Zealand shared many common

strategic interests, said Mr O’Flynn.

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, ruled out the White Paper’s being a “shopping list” of military equipment. But Mr Lange said it would recognise that the two countries had much to offer in the way of defence procurement and supply. The White Paper's publication is the fifth and final step by the Government in promoting debate on defence issues. It issued a defence dis-

cussion paper, called for public submissions to the Defence Inquiry Committee, and had the committee hold public hearings and publish its report. In spite of its hopes that the defence inquiry, chaired by a former diplomat, Dr Frank Corner, would produce overwhelming support for Government actions, the response was mixed. New Zealanders appeared to want the anti-nuclear policy but not at the expense of A.N.Z.U.S.