Prime Minister: We have said it is an internal problem, but it is overflowing into India. It is affecting our economy. Not is, but has. It is creating political, social tension, and as I said, the most serious of all is we think our security is threatened.
Miss Frederick: Madam Prime Minister, many people wonder why, when the situation is so tense and there is a threat of a major war there, India has not been willing to accept the good offices of someone line U Thant or anybody else, or negotiate directly with President Yahya Khan?
Prime Minister: We are not negotiating directly for the very simple reason that the problem is not one between India and Pakistan; it is between the military regime of Pakistan and people of East Bengal, the elected leaders, representatives of those people. So far as U Thant is concerned, he is always welcome, but we should be clear as to what can be achieved, what the U.N. wants to achieve. It was we who drew his attention to this question first, and we were not able to move anybody were. Now they want to come on what seems to us President Yahya Khan’s terms.
Miss Frederick: But if the situation continues, there is some fear, and perhaps you even share it, that the big powers could become involved. India has made its first defense pact with the Soviet Union. Pakistan, the political leader of Pakistan, Bhutto. has just gone to Peking, obviously to get some help because President Yahya has said that he can turn to Peking. Now, what is going to happen here? Are the big powers going to become involved, or is there some way to avoid a clash among the big powers? Did President Nixon say that he would take this up in Peking and Moscow when he visits those two capitals?
Prime Minister: I don’t think that such a definite statement was made, but he did say that he was very anxious that a conflict should be avoided and that other people shouldn’t be involved. We, as I said earlier, are against the whole concept of war, and we would not like to do anything which would provoke a war. But to any country, something is always more important. We have fought for many years for our freedom and we are not going to see that freedom threatened by no matter who. We have not signed a defense pact with the Soviet Union. It is merely a Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Peace. We can have discussions with the, but it is not a military treaty in any Sense of the word.
Miss Frederick: Madam Prime Minister, how do you then account for Article 9, which says in the event of Threat to either country there would be consultation on the kind of measures to be taken? Isn’t that a defense treaty?
Prime Minister: It is not a defense treaty in the sense, well, that immediately it is decided that we will have military help from them or not, and whatever we are now-what we have got from them are all in the normal course, which we would have got-taken from any country and which have been agreed to earlier. We certainly hope that should we be in trouble not only the Soviet Union but other countries will also like to help us.
Mr. Rosenthal: You made a reference to China a moment ago, Madam Prime Minister. Although your country does not want war, the fact is that ten years ago you had
