U.S. uneasy over Fiji’s nuclear-ship ban

Press, 24 April 1987, Page 38

U.S. uneasy over Fiji’s nuclear-ship ban

NZPA-AFP Washington The United States is uneasy over a recent declaration by Fiji of a New Zealand-style ban on nuclear vessels, seeing the move as part of a trend that could tip the South Pacific’s delicate military balance in favour of the Soviet Union, analysts in Washington said. Fiji’s new Foreign Minister, Krishna Datt, said that the State would ban all nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed vessels from its waters. A similar ban, instituted by New Zealand in July 1984, effectively barred all United States military vessels because of a United States policy of neither confirming nor denying the presence of nuclear weapons in its warships. "It would certainly concern us if this trend toward so-called nuclearfree zones continues in the region,” said a Pentagon official. "The fact that we can’t go into some ports decreases our capability to contribute to an effective defence,” said the official,

who did not want to be named. “Obviously the snowball effect that we feared is becoming a reality right before our eyes,” said Richard Fisher, a South Pacific policy analyst with the Heritage Foundation, a United States Government think-tank. As well as New Zealand and Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu also have stated policies against entry of nuclearpowered or nucleararmed vessels into their waters. “This presents a very significant opportunity to the Soviets for increasing their presence in the Pacific, for potentially introducing military forces into the region,” Mr Fisher said. The Soviet Union signed a protocol to the 1985 South Pacific NuclearFree Zone Treaty, the socalled Rarotonga Treaty, which was ratified by a majority of the South Pacific States in 1986. The United States refused, as did France and Britain. The United States State Department officially said

in a statement last week on Fiji’s action that the United States relationship with Fiji “has many aspects which we will be discussing with the new Government”.

But a State Department source said yesterday the action “concerns. us because the proliferation of nuclear-free zones ... without action by the Soviet Union to reduce arms, could affect our ability to deter by limiting the movement of American vessels and other components of our Armed Forces.”

“Clearly it woulji be in the interests of the Soviet Union to have American military movement restricted without any decrease in Soviet forces or in their own freedom of movement,” he said. In announcing Fiji’s policy, the Foreign Minister, Mr Datt, said it would be backed by anti-nuclear legislation modelled on New Zealand’s. “I think New Zealand can count on a partner in Fiji in this respect,” he said.

But he rejected suggestions that Washington

would react to Fiji’s policy as it had to New Zealand’s. “I think the United States is a very generous Government and I am sure it respects the rights of sovereign nations to carry out their own independent policies,” he said.

Australian Government officials last week confirmed reports that Libya planned to set up a permanent People’s Bureau, or embassy, in Vanuatu, and had approached Papua New Guinea, Fiji, the Solomon Islands and Tonga to establish diplomatic relations. Australian officials also confirmed press reports that Libya had offered paramilitary training courses, secret political donations and promises of substantial economic aid to South Pacific nations. The State Department source said the United States was closely monitoring developments but was not concerned for the moment. “It would be improper to link Libyan initiatives in the region to nonnuclear policies,” he said.