U.S. TO OPEN TALKS WITH NEW ZEALAND ON NUCLEAR POLICY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000202030055-6
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 18, 2010
• Sequence Number: 55
• Publication Date: September 15, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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INCVV Tuxn 11MtJ
ARTICLE APPE 0 15 September 1985
ONPAGE-
U1S.TOOPENTN~KS
respond vigorously, the antinuclear
policy of New Zealand could spread to
Europe.
WITH NEW ZEALAND an Began La" ter
o d l Wi
The rift developed last winter when
Prime Minister David Lange, who was
ON NUCLEAR POLICY elected in' July 1984, carried out a
Labor_ Party antinuclear election
pledge and refused port entry to an
Wellington Official Will Bring
Proposal to Washington -
Skepticism Is Voiced
By BERNARD GWERTZMAN
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 - The
United States and New Ze&land have
agreed to hold high-level talks next
week to determine if the yearlong rup-
ture in the Pacific alliance over nu-
clear policy can be repaired, Adminis-
tration officials said today.
They said Secretary of State George
P. Shultz and Defense Secretary Cas-
par W. Weinberger would hold meet-
iings with Geoffrey Palmer, New Zea-
land's Deputy Prime Minister, on
Thursday and Friday in Washington.
According to New Zealand officials,,
Mr. Palmer, who is also the Attorney
General, Is carrying a confidential plan
drafted by the ruling Labor Party that
could open the way to ending the rift
that has paralyzed the 34-year-old
Anzus alliance of Australia, New Zea-
land and the United States.
Some Skepticism in Washington
Administration officials said they
are interested in seeing the plan, but
several of them doubt it will go far
enough to resolve the split in the al-
liance.
This will be the highest-level meet-
ing, owever, between the two coun-
tries since a United tates sus e
all. military exercises with New
land and cut off exchange of into -
aeni5e fn kormat th its long-
and ally Administration officials
said Mr. Palmer's visit is viewed as
crucial because if the Labor Party plan
falls to erA the rift, the United States
would consider ending all its formal se-
curity obligations to come to New Zea-
land's aid in case of a military emer-
gency
The nuclear dispute been taken
seriously in Washingt r because of
concern that if the United States did not
American Navy destroyer, the Buchan-
an, on the ground that he could not be
sure if it was carrying nuclear Wean-
one. Mr. Lange had ordered a ban an all
nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed
ships In New Zealand waters It is standard American policy never
to say if a particular ship is carrying
nuclear arms. And Washington refused
in the case of the Buchanan to confirm
or deny If nuclear arms were aboard.
As a result of the incident, theUnited
for =01k
e
fiche an And the agree-
ment of ustralia's Labor Govern-
ment, the United States canceled the
annual meeting of the Anzus alliance,
which was set for Canberra two months 1
ago.
Administration officials said Mr.
Lange's Labor Party lost a recent local
election in Timaru, an area in which
his party had prevailed for 58 years.
The reason for the setback was pri-
marily New Zealand's soaring inflation
and interest rates, officials and New
Zealand Embassy aides said. But a re-
cent poll also showed that support for
the Anus' alliance and the United
States had risen from 61 percent to 71
percent in the last year, despite the
strains in relations.
According to New Zealand sources,
Mr. Lange is trying to allow more flex-
ibility into the antinuclear policy with-
out renouncing it.
He is faced with two Irreconcilable
positions - the strong left wing of his
party, which is determined not to relax
the firm antinuclear policy, and the
population as a whole, which while not
antagonistic to that policy, gives high
priority to good relations with the
United States, an Administration offi-
cial said. With general elections due in
two years, Mr. Lange is viewed here . as
rin with wasnington.
Legislation has been drafted by his
party for introduction next year, and a
cial said the main difference between
the current situation and the one that
existed last winter is that Mr. Lange is
now not ruling out in advance visits by
ships that are. "nuclear capable," but ~
only those that are deemed to be carry-
ing such weapons.
In a news conference last week in
Wellington, Mr. Lange was asked how
his Government could tell if a ship that
was capable of carrying nuclear arms
actually had any If the United States
refused to say.
"From the best advice we have to
us," he replied; "from our consulta-
tions with our defense personnel,' and
all other evidence."
He added, however, that the New
Zealand Government was not deviating
from its commitment to keep New Zea-
land free of nuclear-weapons.
A high-level American official said
today that "it appears that Lange is
trying to move toward restoration of
port access, along the lines of the policy
,followed by Norway and Denmark."
Both of those North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganization allies have policies-of bar-
ring nuclear weapons except in timwof
war, but of not raising questions about
American ships that call on their ports.
He said, however, that the United
States believes that it would be a mis-
take for Mr. Lange to go ahead withmi-
tinuclear legislation.
Bernard Kalb, the State Department
spokesman, said, "We will wait to see
what Deputy Prime Minister Palmer
brings."
'-We continue to believe that restora-
tion of port access is essential to .the
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