N-ship sanctions 'will go' says Goff

By AUDREY YOUNG political reporter

Foreign Minister Phil Goff is optimistic that sanctions imposed by the United States on New Zealand over its nuclear ships policy will eventually be eliminated, especially if Democrat Al Gore heads the new government.

Mr Goff has just returned home from his first talks in Washington since taking over the Foreign Affairs portfolio.

New Zealand's 1985 ban on nuclear powered and armed ships effectively ended the Anzus defence pact with Australia and the US.

The US placed restrictions on military exercises with New Zealand, limited the intelligence information it shared and generally made New Zealand access to Washington officials more difficult.

"They [the sanctions] have been gradually eroding and I think they will continue to gradually erode to the point where they are no longer issues," said Mr Goff. "It will be short of New Zealand participating in a formal alliance and it certainly won't involve a change in the policy that we agree to disagree.

"The impression I've got is that if it's a Gore administration there will be on-going, straight-line progress, and a Republican administration may not be a lot different.

"Those are the signals I'm picking up."

Mr Goff gave assurances in Washington that New Zealand's defence spending would be maintained and might be increased.

"If it moves in any direction it will slightly upwards. It won't be a huge increase ... but it will be an increase.

"New Zealand's not about bludging off anybody else in international affairs. We always have pulled our weight.

"There's not a person out there questioning that we are pulling our weight at the present time."

Among those Mr Goff met in Washington were Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Deputy Secretary of Defence Rudy de Leon.

He also met advisers to both Mr Gore and Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, the Republican chairman of the Asia-Pacific subcommittee of the House of Representatives, Doug Bereuter, and Senate majority leader Trent Lott.

"There is no enmity towards New Zealand," he said. "There's respect for what we're doing in the world and there's a strong level of friendship.

"We were expecting that there might be some residual flak around. But overwhelmingly people have been supportive and I think the reason for that is we've basically put our money and our troops where our mouth is.

"We can demonstrate in terms of East Timor what we've done, in terms of Bougainville, in terms of our level of activity on the Solomons and in Fiji.

"People are aware we sent the helicopters in [to West Timor refugee camps] to pull the UN out, and there is nobody, just nobody, who suggests New Zealand isn't playing its part. Patently we are."

Mr Goff said he believed there was still a problem with the United States Navy, which continued to fear that other countries would copy New Zealand's anti-nuclear law.

"My answer to that is this was a policy for New Zealand. It wasn't designed for export. It hasn't been exported.

"What we're pushing for publicly is obviously multilateral answers to disarmament."

While away, Mr Goff also visited the United Nations in New York with other foreign ministers and attended a Commonwealth foreign ministers meeting.

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