between India and Pakistan a “gimmick". Is it not true that on 20th July, the Secretary-General addressed a confidential memorandum to the Members of the Security Council bringing to their attention the deteriorating situation between India and Pakistan? Did he not draw their attention to “border clashes, clandestine raids and acts of sabotage the appeared to be becoming more frequent”? Did he not warn that a major conflict on this subcontinent could all too easily expand?
It was in that context that Pakistan expressed its readiness to co-operate with the Security Council to avert the threat to peace in the sub-continent and the danger of wider war. And yet, the Foreign Minister of India sees fit to call the proposal for a good offices committee a “gimmick”.
The Foreign Minister of India said that his country did not wish to be “equated” with Pakistan in this matter. Now, what does that mean? The expression is either meaningless or based on the assumption that India in some sense enjoys a status superior to that of Pakistan as a Member Stare of this Organization. That is an untenable argument. The Representative of even so great a power as the Soviet Union reminded this Organization yesterday that all Member States of this Organization enjoy equal status.
I would ask my colleague from India to put aside false Pride and come down to the earth of reality. Surely, no one will think the less of India for accepting that United Nations observers be stationed within its territory.
The Foreign Minister of India was equally cavalier with Pakistan's offer to sit down with representatives of his Government to work out ways of bringing the refugees back. I am quite sure that neither he nor his Government has misunderstood what Pakistan has offered. We have not asked India to help Pakistan in solving its internal political problems. Whether we negotiate with this or that person or that party in Pakistan is the concern of Pakistan alone. The only matter which concerns India is the presence of a large number of Pakistani citizens on its soil and how to send them back home. It is to discuss this problem that, in my Government's view, Representatives of the two countries should meet either by themselves or under some impartial auspices.
The Foreign Minister of India said Pakistan is trying to turn its internal difficulties into an Indo-Pakistan problem. Things have taken this turn only because of the presence of Pakistan refugees on Indian soil and the help and assistance which India is giving to secessionist elements.
I stated the other day that this help included the arming and training of secessionist elements, and also the participation of India’s own forces in operations across the Pakistan borders. This august Assembly must have noted that the Foreign Minister of India passed over this charge in silence. In fact, he said that borders between India and Pakistan cannot be effectively sealed, and I take that as a reaffirmation of the pledge which he gave in the Indian Parliament that his Government would give every possible help to what India describes as “liberation forces". I am not aware of any borders which are closed by the actual raising of barbed-wire fences. Borders are kept peaceful by the policies and the actions of the Governments concerned. I would ask the Foreign Minister
