MADRAS, India -- One of the first things that strikes a visitor to New Zealand are the innumerable signboards that proudly proclaim the small Pacific island country to be nuclear-free. Even the common man on the streets of Wellington or Christchurch or Auckland will tell you New Zealand fiercely protects its nuclear-free status.
But the nation's pride may well take a beating if the United States has its way. Given Washington's strong-armed, bullying stance, it may not be long before New Zealand, still wonderfully idyllic with its undulating meadows and soothingly green mountains, gets a taste of nuclearization.
Washington now wants Wellington to relax its ban on nuclear-powered warships. America argues that it needs to use New Zealand's ports as a part of the global war on terrorism. A senior U.S. government official, Grant Aldonas, pushed this line of thought by almost ridiculing the New Zealand nuclear-free policy. "This is an artifact of another age," he quipped.