RIYADH, 22 March 2006 — New Zealand’s Minister of Defense and Trade Phil Goff called on the international community yesterday to adopt uniform measures to deal with nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and ask Israel together with Iran to roll back their nuclear programs.
Goff was in the Kingdom on an official visit and held wide-ranging talks with Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense & aviation. Goff wrapped up his three-day visit to the Kingdom yesterday after co-chairing a ministerial meeting with Commerce and Trade Minister Hashim Abdullah Yamani.
“A solution should be found to the disagreement between the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) and Iran with the latter given the rights to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes,” said Goff.
He also called for an end to double standards allowing Israel or any other nation to maintain its military nuclear capability.
Referring to the deliberations of the Saudi-New Zealand Joint Ministerial Meeting, Yamani said that New Zealand is eager to increase trade relations with the Kingdom. Trade between Riyadh and Wellington exceeded SR1.3 billion in 2004. “Wellington was very much interested in this country, whose economy is growing fast. Moreover, the Kingdom can be a good market for a range of goods and products to be exported by New Zealand,” said Yamani.
Goff said that his talks with the crown prince, Yamani and Finance Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf included discussions about a regional free-trade accord and elimination of double taxation on businesses operating in both countries.
He said that his talks with Crown Prince Sultan mainly focused on regional security issues with reference to the cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan. The minister said that he would strive to see peace and stability in Afghanistan. New Zealand has a contingency of security forces in Afghanistan participating in the country’s reconstruction.
“The two countries share common views on several issues affecting Afghanistan,” he said. “New Zealand had also been involved with the multinational force and some UN agencies in Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon.”
He said that the two countries had agreed to cooperate in the agriculture sector and a memorandum of understanding would be signed for live sheep trade in near future within the framework of the “mutually agreed conditions.”
