A.N.Z.U.S. tie dead, says P.M.

Press, 26 April 1989, Page 1

A.N.Z.U.S. tie dead, says P.M.

By

TOM BRIDGMAN

of NZPA, in New Haven

The Prime Minister, Mr Lange, yesterday called the A.N.Z.U.S. security alliance with the United States “dead” and raised the prospect of New Zealand now formally withdrawing from the defunct Council of Ministers.

“The basis of the alliance was a commitment to consult. Consultations stopped,” Mr Lange said at Yale University. “If this sterile situation continues for long, New Zealand ought to address the question of whether there is any relevance in remaining formally part of a security arrangement which provides for Ministerial meetings in which we are no longer able to participate. "That raises the issue of whether New Zealand should give formal notice of withdrawal from the A.N.Z.U.S. Council. The treaty allows for that.” Mr Lange said the fact was “the alliance chapter” in the relationship between the United States and New Zealand which dated back to 1951 effectively "ended when the Labour Government took office in 1984 and barred nuclear weapons.

“The past five years have been a period of readjustment. They form another chapter which the time has come to close,” he told the full-house audience of about 400 people, who gave him a long ovation after the address. The Council of Ministers to which Mr Lange referred was the annual meeting under the A.N.Z.U.S. defence alliance comprised the Defence and Foreign Affairs Ministers or their

equivalent of the three countries. The last meeting of the council took place in Wellington in July 1984, coinciding with the election of the Lange Government. Since then Australia and the United States have held bilateral meetings and have not invited New Zealand. The standard United States argument has been that New Zealand is welcome to return to the table if it changes the present anti-nuclear policy and allows port calls by American ships under the neither confirm nor deny policy on nuclear weapons. The option has allowed the National Party to see a time when it could take the country back into an operative A.N.Z.U.S.-type structure. Over the last month, various members of the new Bush Administration in the United States have been asked if U.S. policy towards New Zealand will change — in effect whether there will be a softening of the American stance. All, including the Vice-Presi-dent, Mr Quayle,, have said there will be no change to the policy. Mr Lange was emphatic at Yale that New Zealand would not change its anti-nuclear policy. He repeatedly emphasised that to revert .to participation in the A.N.Z.U.S. Treaty would defin-

itely mean nuclear weapons in New Zealand.

He commented at a press conference after the speech, “The electorate know one thing above all others, that if we are back in (the treaty), we’re back in boots and all with the bomb. That is the fact.”

During the formal address he made clear the Labour Government’s position, which was that “nuclear weapons will continue to be excluded from New Zealand.

“The lesson is plain,” he said. “In the end it proved impossible for a small country to maintain a security alliance with a nuclear power on any terms other than those set by the nuclear power. “For all of that, our belief that we were right to say ‘no’ to nuclear weapons is if anything stronger now than it was five years ago.

“The price of that belief was the security alliance with the United States. It is a price which New Zealand is prepared to pay.” • The United States Embassy in Wellington had not seen Mr Lange’s speech yesterday and a spokesman said that it would be appropriate for any comment to come from Washington.

Further reports, page 9