Goal a ‘world rid of nuclear weapons’

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 4

Goal a ‘world rid of nuclear weapons’

’’ Political reporter The north Pacific area must.be a full participant with the South Pacific fin the process ■ of building security, according to the chairman of Parliament’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Select Committee, Mr Jim Anderton. He told the World Peace Council Conference in Auckland yesterday that the goal had to be a world rid of nuclear weapons. Such a world had been glimpsed when the leaders of the superpowers had met a Reykjavik a year ago, and since then unprecedented progress had been made towards that goal. Neither changes in the United States Administration nor a greater emphasis on domestic reforms in the Soviet Union could be allowed to divert attention from that task. Countries in the South Pacific had welcomed the

inclusion of Asian missiles in the Intermediate Range Forces (I.NJr.) Agreement, Mr Anderton spid. The retention of r 100 I.N.F. warheads in Soviet Asia and possibly in Alaska as well would have concerned the South Pacific greatly. Those warheads would have remained an unnecessary and confrontative element in the strategic equation, he said, and would have had an impact bn the wider Asia-Pacific region. There were already too many nuclear weapons stationed in and around north Asia and their elimination was as much a necessity as in Europe, Mr Anderton said. New Zealand was part of the wider Asia-Pacific region. Although the nuclear and conventional forces were massed in the north and although the flash points were many, thousands of kilometres

f New. 'Zealand was concerned about the sthblliHy and security orthe wider area., ' itt Anderton said New Zealand’s trade routes ran through the region .and many of its Important markets and sources of supply were located there. Instability in the' north Pacific was a big concern to New Zealand. X; At the global Ifivel, security had to be maintained at a vastly reduced level of weaponry, both nuclear and conventional. The ultimate goal had to be the elimination oT all nuclear weapons and a climate of trust and confidence established that would make that possible. He said the South Pacific had to remain free of nuclear weapons. Security policies had to be adopted by all nations that recognised all the factors that contributed to insecurity, and not just the military ones.