PRIME MINISTER
SPEECH BY T13E PRIME NMqNSTER THE HON P J KEATING, MY
FOR THE PRIME MINISTER FOR THlE SOUTH PACIFIC ENVIRONMENT
uMIN S S mMEEIG, HERITAGE HOTEL BRISBANE,
16 AUGUST
I am very pleased to be able to speak to you today both as Prime Minister of Australia
and as Chair of the South Pacific Forum.
This is an important meeting the first time Environment Ministers from the South
Pacific Forumn have ever met together.
So it is very disappointing that the event which has brought it about is such an unhappy
one France's decision on I' 3; Juxne to resume the testing of nuclear weapons in the
Pacific. The response to that decision both within this regon and outside it was swift and strong.
Much swifter and stronger, I am sure, than the Government of France expected.
The reactions reflected, I think, a sense of betrayal. Betrayal by one of the current
nuclear powers, which had only recently pledged to exercise the ' utmost restraint! in
testing. Betrayal by a democracy. A betrayal of the hopes all of us felt with the end of
the Cold War that the world might finally free itself from the awful threat of nuclear
destruction. The French decision was a bad decision, because it put at risk our efforts to secure two of
the basic pillars of a non-nuclear world the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and
universal membership of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
And within this region the region, far-from France, where the test are to be conducted
it raised particular concerns, of course, about the environmental damage the testing
program rmght cause.
In response to Frances decision many countries around the world have raised their voices
in protest Action has been taken by countries individually, in regional forums and
globally in the United Nations and other international organisations.
For its part, the South Pacific region contains some of the worlds smallest and most
ecologically vulnerable states. But all of them are in a profound material and spiritual
relationship with the Pacific Ocean. And through the South Pacific Forum especially,
their voice has been heard in this international outcry.
Immediately after the French Government's announcement, a Ministerial Mission from
the Forum visited Paris to express our concerns directly to the French-The delegation
was led by the Australian Foreign Minister, Senator Evans. President Dowiyogo of
Nauru, who is with us at this meeting, was present, too, together with representatives of
Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Western Samoa.
Since then, a Regional Action Committee has been set up with the assistance of the
Forum Secretariat to coordinate our responses to the testing program. It will meet again
tomorrow here in Brisbane.
We are taking actions in other parts of the world, too. For example, Forum diplomatic
representatives i Washington from the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated
States of Micronesia, Western Samoa, New Zealand and Australia have made joint
representations on nuclear issues to members of Congress and the Administration.
I want to take this opportunity to thank Secretary General Tabai, in particular, for the
enormous effort he has put into developing and coordinating the Forum response.
The campaign against French nuclear testing by Forum members has been strong and
consistent And I believe it has already been useful for example, in encouraging the
welcome French decision on 9 August to pursue a zero threshold in the negotiations for a
Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. But there is much further to go.
We wI have a further opportunity to review where matters stand at the Forum meeting
in Madang next month.
An important point to underline is that none of the responses to the testing decision by
forum members has been motivated by hostility to France or to its role in the Pacific.
Still less have our actions been the result of any antipathy towards the French people or
French culture. It has concerned me whenever that line has been breached in public
protests. We are opposed, simply, to this single bad decision. And we want to see it changed.
Over recent years, with the Maftignon Accords in New Caledonia and the 1992 French
moratorium on nuclear testing, our region's relations with France had probably never
been better.
That is the situation we want to sec again a productive and creative French engagement
with this region.
But the testing decision has apin raised questions about how well the French
Government understands the attitudes and concerns of the people of this region.
Because the region's response should not have come as a surprise to President Chirac or
his advisers.
Our history of opposition to the testing of nuclear weapons and the dumping of nuclear
waste in this region has been long and consistent
It has been expressed in a number of ways over many years: in communiques and
declarations of successive South Pacific Forum meetings; in the 1985 Treaty of
Raratonga and in the 1993 South Pacific Regional Environment Protection Convention.
This meeting is a further practical expression of our concern about the nuclear issue. I
want to thank my colleague, John Faulkner, for the arrangements he has made to bring it
about. You will be focusing on the environmental consequences of the French Governments
decision. Australia's Chief Scientist Professor Michael Pitman has brought together a
scientific advisory group of scientists with nuclear, geological, seismic, meteorological
and marine expertise to provide you with scientific advice.
You will have an opportunity to review this evidence and to consider a possible
monitoring regime for the region. Your recommendations will provide a very important
input into the discussions when Forum leaders meet next month in Maclang.
Soon after President Chirac announced his decision about testing I wrote an article for
the French newspaper LeMonde as Chairman of the South Pacific Forums in which I
tried to convey to ordinary French people why it is that we in the Pacific oppose the
testing program SO stron gly.
I wrote that " There is a world of difference between studying a map of the Pacific in
Europe and living on the shores of the ocean in Sydney or Brisbane or Auckland or Suva.
" The map puts these places a long way from Mururoa. But when you live in these places
you know that, vast thought it is, the South Pacific is one environment and it binds all
those who share it."
That knowledge which we all share is why this meeting is being held. It is why the issues
you are considering are so important.
It is why people in all the Forum countries will join me in wishing you well in your
discussions.