New Zealand - intermediary

between Rim and Islands?

Changes in perceptions on the part of countries on the Pacific Rim as to the future of the South Pacific basin have pro jected New Zealand into the role of an intermediary.

Since New Zealand is wholly within the basin — as distinct from Australia, which has bor ders facing Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, as well as the South Pacific — it finds itself fielding questions from Euro pean countries, Canada and the United States who want to know more about the region.

This places New Zealand in a delicate position since it has no intention of acting as a mouth piece for the independent Island countries who can speak for themselves. But the growing awareness of the strategic and economic importance of the South Pacific has created a need for urgent answers, and countries tend to beat a path to New Zealand’s door.

The strategic interest lies in the fact that the Straits of Malacca are a narrow waterway for international shipping, and if they were closed because of conflict, the main sea routes for Americans and Russians would

be down through the South Pacific and around to the south of Australia and New Zealand.

The economic interest lies in the fishing resources now con trolled by South Pacific countries, plus timber and other resources.

While New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, who has a deep interest in the South Pacific, tells inquiring nations to ask the South Pacific countries for answers, he also takes opportunities when they arise to say things on behalf of the region, which includes his own country. He did this in Japan in April by bringing the

Japanese Prime Minister Zenko Suzuki up to date on develop ments in the region. ‘What I am trying to do is to raise the consciousness of the leaders of some of these larger countries to the fact that there is a very large number of newly independent states in the South Pacific,’ he said. ‘It is most important that they stick together and that they are politically and econ omically stable because if they are not, the whole strategic balance in that part of the world will alter.’

Speaking at a reception at tended by Japanese and New Zealanders in Tokyo, Muldoon issued a message intended for a far wider audience: ‘Never for get the newly independent states of the South Pacific.

They are very important.’

William Gasson in

Wellington.

Auckland focal point for Islanders living in New Zealand.