Opposition to American position on anti-nuclear protocols

Press, 12 June 1987, Page 26

Opposition to American position on anti-nuclear protocols

By

TOM BRIDGMAN

NZPA staff correspondent Washington The United States Congress may voice its opposition to the Reagan Administration refusal to sign the anti-nuclear protocols of the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone Treaty. A Democrat, Mr Stephen Solarz, chairman of the East Asia and Pacific House foreign affairs sub-committee, said after a four-hour hearing on the treaty that he had “come to the conclusion that our failure to ratify this treaty is not in the best interests of the

United States. “I would submit we need to have a decent respect for the opinions of our friends and allies and fellow Democrats around the world. “That doesn’t mean that we give them the franchise on American policy but it does mean that when they have strong preferences that we ought to try to accommodate those preferences particularly when they do not negatively impinge on our vital security interests.

“Therefore I think we have made a mistake,” he said.

Mr Solarz said he believed that most of his colleagues on the committee shared his view and that they would probably work on “an effort to muster sufficient support to adopt a resolution expressing the sense of the congress” that the S.P.N.F.Z. should be supported. At the hearing three Reagan Administration officials representing State and Defence departments and .the United States arms control and disarmament agency sought to defend the United States opposition to the treaty. They argued that support for the treaty would be against the policy of deterrence and help promotion of other nuclearfree zones around the world which would have been against United States world-wide security interests and responsibilities.