French aid to

The Territories

French aid to the Pacific will continue

While other superpowers may be losing interest in the Pacific, Chirac will main tain its presence here

By Patrick Decloitre

Paris-based ambassador Jean Bressot, who is permanent secre tary for the South Pacific and France’s permanent representative to the South Pacific Commission, said France’s relations with the Pacific were “ideal for the time being”.

Speaking during his first visit to Vanuatu, Bressot said the possibility of nuclear tests resuming in the Pacific was not discussed with Vanuatu’s Prime Minister, Maxime Carlot, although the two met for nearly one hour.

The French diplomat also said he recent ly met leaders of New Zealand, Australia and Fiji and “they all want France to stay in the region”.

He explained this saying Britain, a former colonial power in the Pacific had now clearly withdrawn from the region and the United States was starting to wonder whether it should do the same. “But France is here and intends to stay,” Bressot stressed. “This is a concept all the coun tries in the region have now assimilated, most of them with pleasure and they say so.”

He said apart from its bilateral co-opera tion with individual countries of the South Pacific, France was also active on a regional, multi-lateral basis through such organisations as the SPC and the South Pacific Forum.

“I recently met leremia Tabai, the secre tary-general of SPF in Suva and he told me how important he saw France’s relations with the region,” Bressot said in Port Vila.

He added France was seeking to further integrate in the Pacific through another channel - the Pacific Economic and Co operation Conference which comes under the umbrella of Asia Pacific Economic Conference.

Speaking more specifically on France’s relations with Australia and New Zealand, Bressot described them as “ideal for the

time being”.

“Countries like Australia and New

Zealand have changed; they now regard

co-operation with France as something necessary,” he said. “For instance, in Wellington, France’s presence in the Pacific is now accepted. I don’t know whether this is going to last but at the moment there isn’t a shadow of a cloud in our relations.”

Asked about the possibility of a resump tion of French nuclear testing in the Pacific, Bressot said although France had successfully been promoting the indefinite prolonging of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, its military force de dissuasion

was “capital to maintaining the credibility

of the French defence.

“The decision in the last resort belongs to the President of the Republic. Let’s leave him some time to thoroughly consider every aspect of the issue.” ■

Maxime Carlot: close friend of Chirac