They wanted a third bloc, but changed their attitude when they found it is not possible for them to do that. After Dr. Henry Kissinger made a secret visit to Peking, Chinese and Americans started coming together and I would say that is a moment, since when, the world situation started worsening. If I may put it that way, both of them are clever partners because Americans think of using the Chinese card and Chinese think of using the American card in their own interest. I do not know ultimately who uses whom. That is a different matter. Naturally, there is an atmosphere in the country and I do not want to say anything inconsistant with that, that is, improvement of relations between India and China is necessary because she is one of our next door neighbours, she is a big country and our relations with her are ancient.
Sir, we have taken a very correct position from the very beginning. Even when they were non-friendly with us, we had not changed our position. Pandit Nehru made the assessment of the relationship of China and, I think basically he was right, but he got the shock of his life, when they sent their armies across the border. That was the worst disappointment Pandit Nehru faced in his life. We do want to improve the relations, but we do not want to take, any wrong step or any hasty step. Any type of euphoria must not be allowed to envelope us while assessing the issues involved. Assess the issues in the correct perspective and deal with the same objectively and correctly. As far as China is concerned, I think, I have made my point.
Sir, what is the policy that we have to follow ultimately. It comes back again to the same thing - non-aligned movements. It is a good thing that we have made very valuable contributions in the course of the last 25 to 30 years in the development of that movement. But I would like to warn the government that in days to come there are going to be very heavy pressures on the non-aligned movement and there would be efforts to disunite this movement. There would be efforts to wean away people on some theoretical grounds here and there and say that this is what is to be done, this is what will have to be rejected and accepted. Some theoretical points may be raised and that danger will have to be kept in mind. They have always done that. It is not for the first time that they will do it now.
But in years to come, particularly in this decade - take the question of Afghanistan, for example they will try to divide the countries on the basis of Islamic and non-Islamic countries. They will try to divide the countries on the basis of small countries and big countries. India has got one problem. Unfortunately, India has been misunderstood because it is a country of a very big size and it is not our fault that we are a big country. But we never tried to behave like a big brother. We tried to understand the difficulties and problems of the neighbouring countries though they may be small, viz. Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan. These are all countries we never considered them small countries. They are equally big countries for us, though geographically in terms of population and economy we may be a little stronger, and we will continue to be stronger.
