France opens new chapter with NZ

On the 20th anniversary of the incident that poisoned relations between France and New Zealand, France says the page has been turned.

The French foreign ministry described relations between the two countries as "excellent", while the defence ministry said ties were now on course.

A foreign ministry spokesman told the Weekend Herald that the growing political, cultural and sporting ties between the two countries illustrated the excellent state of relations two decades after the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior.

He pointed to the Prime Minister's visit to France in June 2004, the visit to Paris last September by Foreign Minister Phil Goff and the return of the remains of a New Zealand soldier killed during World War I. This year the two countries celebrate the 60th anniversary of their establishment of diplomatic relations.

A spokesman at the defence ministry said France had done everything to try to close the book on a painful episode, by apologising to New Zealand for the attack, paying compensation to the victims and working hard to improve bilateral ties.

"Relations between our two countries have no more dispute connected to the Rainbow Warrior. Everything is there for exchanges between states and citizens to develop," said the spokesman, Jean-Francois Bureau.

Mr Bureau also paid tribute to the Prime Minster's visit as having "opened a new chapter" in bilateral relations and boosting co-operation between France and New Zealand in the South Pacific.

Proof of this is the development of the FRANZ (France, Australia New Zealand) agreement to help South Pacific nations in need of disaster relief. The three countries are envisaging steps to boost marine surveillance against illegal fishing in the Pacific's Exclusive Economic Zones.

Military "co-operation continues to strengthen in a constructive spirit", said Mr Bureau, noting exchanges of military personnel, visits by senior officers and stopovers by French naval ships.

Turning to the nuclear test programme that stirred so much opposition against France in the South Pacific, Mr Bureau said that the Mururoa facility had been closed "definitively" after the last French blast there, in early 1996. That same year, France signed the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and ratified it in 1998.

"France is the only country with nuclear weapons which has closed and dismantled its nuclear test centre and which has also given up several [nuclear bomb] programmes that were under development," Mr Bureau said.