Bolger defends nuclear ‘trust’

Press, 11 May 1989, Page 1

Bolger defends nuclear ‘trust’

By

BRENDON BURNS

in Wellington

The loss in 1965 of a nuclear bomb from an American ship near Japan, had no bearing on New Zealand’s ability to trust the United States, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Bolger, said.

He was responding yesterday to reports about the incident and comments from the Minister of Disarmament, Ms Fran Wilde. The hydrogen bomb, carried in a Skyhawk jet, accidentally rolled from the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ticonderoga, the Pentagon said on Monday. It was responding to a Greenpeace report which said documents also show the Ticonderoga was coming off Vietnam combat duty and was heading to Japan for a port call. Japan, which has experienced atomic bomb blasts on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, has a policy which bans nuclear weapons being brought into its ports. It also accepts the neither confirm nor deny policy of the United States.

In recent days, Mr Bolger has outlined a similar policy which, he says, National would put in place for New Zealand if it became the Government. Ms Wilde had said the loss of the bomb would be judged by New Zealanders while considering the National Party’s "trust them’’ policy. Mr Bolger said Ms Wilde was seeking to distort the facts about the incident to support Labour’s campaign to keep New Zealand out of the A.N.Z.U.S. alliance. “The facts are that an unarmed nuclear weapon was dumped accidentally in international waters off a United States aircraft carrier on combat duty in 1965,” he said. “The people of New Zealand are not stupid and they will not swallow Fran Wilde’s cynical effort to seize on that incident to discredit a trustworthy ally.”

Mr Bolger accused Ms Wilde of being anti-American. "An incident in international waters in those circumstances has absolutely no bearing on New Zealand’s ability to trust the United States to respect our desire to keep nuclear weapons out of our ports during ship visits.”

He said not even the Labour Government’s law could prevent the passage of nuclear arms through international waters or important sea lanes such as Cook Strait.

Last evening, Ms Wilde said she had not been attempting to discredit the United States with her earlier comment, but to show the duplicity of the National Party’s policy.

She said the Government understood the American neither confirm nor deny policy, and had its own policy ensuring nuclear weapons did not enter New Zealand.

“The Nats are trying to have it both ways,” she said. Ms Wilde agreed that the Government’s anti-nuclear law would not stop the passage of vessels carrying nuclear arms through Cook Strait.

But she noted the reports from Washington said the Ticonderoga had been en route to Japan, which has a policy opposing the visit of ships carrying nuclear arms.

A spokesman for Mr Bolger said last evening that it appeared the American vessel had not been en route to a Japanese port, but to the island of Okinawa. In 1965, this was still an Americancontrolled naval base, although it was later returned to Japan.