New Zealand Warns U.S. of Peril to ANZUS Ties

Prime Minister David Lange warned Monday that U.S. trade curbs, threatened in retaliation for his ban on American nuclear vessels, would further weaken New Zealand’s military ties with the United States and Australia.

“Anything that cuts us back in the United States cuts back our possibility of taking our part in regional cooperation,” Lange said in an interview.

“We depend for our viability on our trading. . . . We are therefore, of course, absolutely vulnerable in the event that we’re cut off from that economic lifeblood. And, if we are, well, we don’t relate so well to our mates.”

Normally cordial relations between Washington and New Zealand have been strained since Lange’s Labor government last month said it would not let the U.S. destroyer Buchanan make a port call here because the ship has the potential to carry nuclear weapons.

In response to the ban, the United States and Australia canceled ANZUS (Australia-New Zealand-U.S.) naval exercises scheduled for next month, a move that left in doubt the future of the 34-year-old military alliance.

In addition, several members of Congress called for the imposition of economic sanctions. The Reagan Administration rejected the notion of penalties but dropped broad hints that it might adopt a policy of benign neglect when New Zealand seeks renewal of special concessions that free some of its agricultural exports from quotas and tariffs.

The debt-ridden New Zealand economy, its growth seriously lagging, is based on agricultural exports and could be vulnerable to small fluctuations in demand. The United States buys about 14% of the more than $4 billion in goods that New Zealand exports each year.

Nuclear-Free Proposal

The Lange government, elected last July, has urged the establishment of a nuclear free zone in the South Pacific and barred nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships from port calls. In practice, that policy bans most American ships, since the Pentagon has a long-standing policy never to disclose the existence of nuclear weapons on U.S. naval vessels.

Speaking to two American reporters in his ninth-floor office, the beefy prime minister denied published reports that officials here misled the Reagan Administration into thinking the anti-nuclear policy would be softened. He also bristled at suggestions that New Zealand is seeking a free ride on U.S. defenses.

He acknowledged that, thanks to its ANZUS ties, New Zealand is able to keep military expenditures to a modest 2.7% of its gross domestic product. Still, he added, his remote nation of three million people maintains a military force of more than 12,700 and has stationed troops abroad in Singapore and as part of the Sinai peacekeeping force.

“This government resents the idea of being portrayed as a non-participating drone,” he snapped.

Response to Aggression

Lange again rejected suggestions that the controversy has crippled ANZUS and left his nation defenseless.

“I think that the response from the United States and from Australia to a situation of aggression against New Zealand would be there irrespective of ANZUS or not,” he said.

Lange repeatedly sought to play down the extent of his government’s rift with Washington. He praised Reagan Administration officials for being “honest” and “straightforward” in their negotiations on the ship issue and nuclear policy in general and rejected suggestions that the United States is planning to make an example of New Zealand as a warning to other allies who balk at elements of American defense strategy.

Lange pointed to public statements from Reagan and Secretary of State George P. Shultz to support his position that the U.S. plans no economic retaliation against New Zealand. He said, though, that he has received no such assurances in private from American officials.

Despite the present dispute, Lange said that New Zealand plans to remain firmly allied with the United States and other Western democracies.

‘U.S. Is Our Mate’

“When you choose who your mates are, you choose the ones that you get on with, that you respect and who have the values that you have,” he said. “And in that respect, there is no question that the United States is our mate. The Soviets, in those circumstances, are not mates. They’re respectful acquaintances, but they’re not mates.”

Lange said the public here has rallied around his party’s anti-nuclear policy out of resentment at what was widely viewed as an assault on New Zealand sovereignty. He also attacked leaders of the National Party, the main opposition group, for doing a “rain dance” to whip up fears of American economic retaliation.