PNG slaps Aust. on nuke treaty, aid

Papua New Guinea’s new fore ign minister, Mr John Giheno, catapulted the prickly question of nuclear ship visits to Pacific countries into the agenda of the 1985 South Pacific Forum by a very strong statement made dur ing his visit in July to Kuala Lumpur for the conference of foreign ministers of the Associa tion of South-east Asian Nations

(Asean).

He accused Australia of attempting to push through a still unprepared Forum a treaty on a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific which did not deal with the ship issue. He said PNG was "most unlikely" to sign and might seek to extend the treaty’s terms to include a ban on nuclear ships.

How much Mr Giheno’s views were a fair reflection of his government’s position could not be gauged but there were indi cations that some of the attitude might have been formed by PNG’s irritation with Canberra over recent aid cuts.

The growing interest of ASEAN in the strategically im portant islands of the Pacific was very evident in Kuala Lum pur. Two of the chief observers were Mr Giheno and Ratu David Toganivalu, deputy prime minis ter of Fiji.

During speeches, and off conference interviews, both men indicated they saw merit in im proving relationships with the

ASEAN sector of the Pacific Basin and, although it has been made fairly clear, if privately, to the two racially-European coun tries, Australia and New Zea land, that they would not really qualify to be regarded as proper ly Asian, at least not for now, there have been suggestions that they, too, should take note of ASEAN’s growing community of opinion on regional and world issues.

Thus, the issue of a nuclear free zone for the South Pacific, and, more particularly, the treaty intended to enshrine that goal which was espoused in the South Pacific Forum last year by Australian prime minister, Bob Hawke, and supported by New Zealand’s David Lange, came under scrutiny at Kuala Lumpur.

Mr Giheno told reporters his country was "most unlikely” to sign the treaty when it came to the table at the Forum meeting in Rarotonga in August. He said PNG felt it was being "railroaded through” by the Australian gov ernment.

Ratu David stopped short of saying Fiji would not sign, but said that he, too, felt that more time was needed for island gov ernments to consider the ramifications of the treaty before it was signed.

Mr Giheno, in a statement much stronger than any PNG minister has previously made on the point, told reporters his gov

ernment was considering joining New Zealand in closing its ports to nuclear powered or armed ships. He professed to be angry that Canberra was "trying to exclude the issue from the trea ty.”

At their 1984 meeting in Funa futi the Forum prime ministers chewed over all main points of the treaty and, at that time, agreed that some of their num ber would disagree on the ships issue. It was to be left to individual decision, they said.

Tonga and Western Samoa were openly in favor of visits.

PNG said it would deal with ship visits on a case-by-case basis.

Fiji kept a low profile, but let it be known that it was closely aligned to the United States and, there fore, would be unlikely to join a blanket ban.

Given the differences of opin ion on the point between Austra lia and New Zealand which had led to public strains in the ANZUS alliance, it was not ex pected that Australia could sign a treaty banning access or pas sage for nuclear ships and, indeed, Mr Hawke was specific on that point in statements in Funafuti. If a clause banning nuclear ships from the region were to be written into the treaty, Australia could not sign, and some other island countries would not sign. The Forum would, thereby, suffer consider

able damage on a major issue.

Mr Giheno’s statements in Kuala Lumpur may or may not be shared by Mr Somare, and they may possibly be a reflection of the irritation Papua New Guinea feels with Australia about Cabinet's decision on July 8 to cut budgetary aid by five per cent a year for the next three years, and by up to eight per cent in the two years beyond that. Some offset of these cuts would be made by increased

tied-project aid.

Mr Giheno said these cuts were "much more drastic” than had been recommended in the Jackson Report which proposed cuts over five years at the rate of 3 per cent per annum. Senior PNG officials, in Canberra in June, asked that the cuts be limited to one per cent, at least while the law and order crisis and Irian Jaya border problems

persisted.

Some correspondents in Kuala Lumpur felt Mr Giheno sought to get ASEAN pressure on Australia by hinting that a cut in Australian aid funds would complicate the fragile matter of relations with Indonesia, an ASEAN member, over the bor der.

Mr Giheno accused Australia of "hypocrisy, for it is pushing ahead with the treaty but at the same time is mining uranium.”

Staff Writer.