Annotations for Countries: Australia

La Paz, Mexico. President Luis Echeverría says Mexico will expand its 12-mile offshore limit to 200 miles keeping rich fishing waters out of the reach of Americans and other foreigners. An expansion by Mexico would be opposed by American tuna fishermen and other, since it would put most of Mexico's rich shrimp beds off southeast coast off limits to foreign boats. 

However, Mexico's move represents an increasing tendency among underdeveloped nations to claim a 200 mile rather than 12-mile sovereignty over resource-rich ocean space along their borders. Even nations such as Iceland and Australia traditionally allied with the United States and Europe have broken with the big powers on this issue. This from the Miami Herald. 

Reaction to current nuclear testings by France was published this week by Mexico's Daily Excélsior. Peru broke diplomatic relations with France in protest of its atomic explosions. It expressed a desire for similar actions by other American countries. The French government protested, announcing that the tests could not be halted. 

Three persons representing 20 French political groups and trade unions delivered a note to President Georges Pompidou asking that an end be put immediately to the series of tests. The daily Le Monde in an editorial maintained that the government cannot ignore that psychologically, its nuclear politics are a failure, provoking indignation from other countries without attaining enthusiasm from the French people. 

In New York, Secretary General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim deplored the French explosion at Mururoa and asked all those interested to abide by the UN rules prohibiting nuclear testing in the atmosphere. 

But the rightest French press, Le Figaro, wrote, "It is doubtful that the New Zealanders and Australians can legitimately express an opinion concerning French defense needs because European security is none of their business." 

In Lima, Peruvian officials announced the rupture of diplomatic relations with France. They're confident, however, that relations with France will resume when France ceases the nuclear testing. 

The Santiago weekly, Chile Hoy, further states, "France insists on controlling the zones near Mururoa, which they claim to be an extension of their sea territory, but the action of expelling ships within a radius of 72 miles is beyond the limits of their sovereignty." 

Before the wave of protesting was begun, it was enough for a nuclear country to announce their testing plans so the danger zone could be avoided by ships. Now different foreign ships have decided to stay within this danger zone as a means of protest.