Thaw over agent sought

Press, 9 March 1988, Page 6

Thaw over agent sought

PETER O’HARA

NZPA London Neither France nor New Zealand appears ready to give an inch over the future of the convicted Rainbow Warrior bomber, Alain Mafart, “The Times” said yesterday.' i The London newspaper made the comment as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Marshall, was due to arrive in Paris for talks with his French counterpart, . Mr Jean-Bernard Raimond. The two nations would this week “explore means of achieving a modest thaw in their relations”, “The Times” said.

But “although both sides agree that it is high time for discussions at this 1eve1.... there seems little scope for progress on the highly sensitive issues at the heart of the discord.” Mr Marshall is due to meet Mr Raimond early Wednesday New Zealand time “against a background of mutual suspicion bordering on hostility” between the two countries, it said. In fact, “Mr David Lange’s Government is viewed with

hostility, in Paris for opposition to French nuclear testing in the South Pacific. “Moreover, differences over the handling of affairs on the French Pacific island of |New Caledonia have also set the two countries at | each other’s throats. In the past Mr Chirac has accused Wellington of actively supporting the cause of the island’s Kanak separatists.” Mr Marshall said he intends to press New Zealand's views on | New Caledonia, and his belief that bloodshed could happen if indigenous people are not given a greater role by France. He will urge France to learn from hew Zealand’s ; experience in the South Pacific. Mir' Marshall said he would seek a timetable i for the return’ of secret > service agent Mafart to I Hao Atolli He told NZPA he would “like to get some progress on the | Mafart business.” I But he had acknow- i ,ledged the visit would be "difficult” and New Zealand could expect little to satisfy it because France’s presidential elections were warming up.