France to increase effort
p. 24 · Read in the full issue
Mr Chirac said in Papeete that his government would increase its diplomatic effort to improve France’s image and its co-operation with other countries in the region.
During a stopover on his way back to Paris, he admitted that his foreign ministry had slightly neglected relations with the Pacific nations. He said France needed to make a greater effort to make itself known.
In this respect, the secretary of state in charge of Pacific issues and the president of the territorial government of French Polynesia, Gaston Flosse would have a much greater role to play.
Meanwhile, New Zealand asked Paris to explain remarks by Chirac that the Rainbow Warrior agents were not being detained in Hao and that he regarded them as heroes. New Zealand prime minister David Lange said in Wellington that, if Chirac was reported corectly, France was in breach of the UN-brokered agreement under which the two agents were released into French custody.