Diplomacy Cordial Passage to India

By Marguerite Johnson

"It is our profound conviction that space, this common property of mankind, should be exclusively peaceful and that what we need is Star Peace and not Star Wars." So said Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev during a four-day visit to India last week, his first journey to Asia since he took office in March 1985. In a speech before the Indian Parliament, Gorbachev declared that "what the world saw six weeks ago in Reykjavik was not a mirage of a nuclear-free world looming on the horizon, but a reality within reach, which the two sides could attain even tomorrow, if they have the will and act responsibly."

The issue of nuclear disarmament and the prospect of an agreement with the U.S. were themes that the Soviet leader sounded again and again throughout the visit. His strongest words were reserved for President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as Star Wars. Gorbachev told a group of Indian leftists that the plan was a "voracious monster" based on a "fundamentally inhumane" concept. The U.S. decision to deploy another B- 52 bomber capable of carrying nuclear missiles, the Soviet leader said, violated the 1979 SALT II accord and ran counter to the spirit of the October summit.

Reflecting the importance that Moscow attaches to its relations with India, Gorbachev was accompanied by his wife Raisa and a high-level delegation that included Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, Central Committee Secretary Anatoli Dobrynin and Military Chief of Staff Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev. The Soviet leader was welcomed as a "crusader for peace" by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and cheered by schoolchildren and villagers who lined the route from the airport into New Delhi. The next day Gorbachev laid a wreath at the memorial to Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India's independence, and planted a magnolia tree nearby. While the two men got down to business, Raisa Gorbachev visited museums and art galleries and attended cultural functions arranged by Gandhi's Italian-born wife Sonia.

In almost ten hours of talks with Gorbachev, Prime Minister Gandhi reiterated his own opposition to the militarization of outer space. The two leaders signed a joint declaration calling for an immediate ban on nuclear- weapons testing, with the goal of achieving an international ban on all nuclear and space-based weapons by the year 2000. The Delhi Declaration, as it was called, implied that Moscow would extend its own unilateral nuclear test ban, which had been set to expire on Jan. 1. The moratorium was first imposed after an appeal from India. The Soviets also announced that they were giving India a new $1.2 billion credit package, the largest Moscow has ever given India.

Gorbachev was less forthcoming on the question of Afghanistan. India has long sought reassurances that the Kremlin would withdraw the estimated 115,000 Soviet troops now in Afghanistan, and Gandhi again pressed for a complete withdrawal. At a press conference Gorbachev said he could not give a timetable for withdrawal but had been encouraged by a United Nations peace effort involving Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. At the same time, Gandhi refused to endorse a Soviet proposal to convene an Asian Security Conference along the lines of the European Security Conference that produced the 1975 Helsinki agreement. Gandhi brushed off the idea as "thoughtprovoking. "

Even so, the Soviet leader's stay was marked by warmth and cordiality. Moscow has long regarded India as its most valued friend among the world's nonaligned nations. Moreover, New Delhi's economic and military ties with Moscow remain strong, even though India has lately been looking to the West in its efforts to modernize its industry and diversify its weaponry. But India's trade surplus with the Soviets has become a major irritant. Last year India exported $1.5 billion in goods, mostly manufactured products, to the U.S.S.R., while its Soviet imports came to only $1.4 billion. To help right the imbalance, New Delhi agreed to purchase newsprint, coking coal and other raw materials.

In addition to the new credit package, which will finance four hydroelectric, coal, steel and oil-exploration projects, the two countries signed agreements expanding consular facilities and cultural programs, including a Festival of India for the Soviet Union similar to the one that traveled to the U.S. last year. Gandhi turned down a Soviet offer to build two nuclear power plants. India already has the capability to build them and wants to avoid dependency on Soviet nuclear-fuel supplies. Indian officials took a cautious line on a Soviet offer to provide military equipment to counter any Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft that Pakistan might acquire from the U.S. They indicated that they would decide after it becomes clear what type of system Pakistan obtains.

As Gorbachev flew home, officials in New Delhi and Moscow released a joint statement noting the "similarity in the positions of India and the U.S.S.R. on major world issues." Once again, the statement emphasized the urgency of nuclear disarmament.

With reporting by Ross H. Munro and K.K. Sharma/ New Delhi