Druzhba-Dosti: 45th Anniversary of Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, 1971


     Indian Prime Minister Mrs.Indira Gandhi and foreign minister Sardar Swaran Singh with Soviet                                                                                 leader Leonid Brezhnev
By Debasis Dash
The humiliating defeat of India in 1962 Sino-India war and the following bonhomie between its archrival Pakistan and the communist eastern neighbor China, India was left to fend herself in the emerging cold war in south Asia.
Despite the United States’ arms embargo on Pakistan and India, it actively supported Pakistan during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. The help was part of then US president Richard Nixon and the then secretary of state Henery Kissinger’s “Quiet Diplomacy”.The broad idea was to lend an unofficial diplomatic and military support to Pakistan to halt the rising influence of soviet union in the south and southeast Asia.  For Americans, they were under the apprehension of India drifting towards the soviet union’s influence with its affinity for socialist ideology.
To support its south Asian ally the United States sent armed consignments loaded on 3 ships named Sunderbans, Padma, and Kaukhala to East Pakistan.
After weighing the legalities  and possibility of imposing a naval blockade in the Bay of Bengal India registered  a diplomatic protest with the U.S .Indian PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi toured western countries to explain India’s stand on the aggravating situation and evolving humanitarian crisis in the East Pakistan (currently, Bangladesh).
Snubbed by the Americans, she invoked Indo-Soviet friendship treaty.As a result, USSR sent its 10th Operative Battle Group (Pacific Fleet) under the command of Admiral V. Kruglyakov to checkmate USS Enterprise (7th Fleet) and halt its advancement towards the Bay of Bengal and prevent it from encircling Indian military bases.
Under his quiet diplomacy, Kissinger had previously urged  Chinese to make subtle advancements from the North to test India’s military might. But unfortunately, the Chinese failed in their planned misadventure as USSR has threatened to give them a bloody nose from the north.
Finally, at 0743hrs on December 14, Washington got a flash message from its Dacca consulate about the offer of surrender from the Pakistani forces to India.
And, on December 15, at 1631 hrs Instrument of Surrender was signed by Lt Gen. AAK Niazi at Ramna Race Course, Dacca
So it was exactly 45 years back from today India had signed the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty by technically shedding its tag of nonalignment. The treaty was instrumental in creation of Bangladesh and the beginning of Indo-Soviet friendship
An excerpt from the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, 1971
“(ARTICLE IX)
Each High Contracting Party undertakes to abstain from providing any assistance to any third country that engages in armed conflict with the other Party. In the event of either being subjected to an attack or a threat thereof, the High Contracting Parties shall immediately enter into mutual consultations in order to remove such threat and to take appropriate effective measures to ensure peace and the security of their countries”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Network Centric Warfare Capabilities & INDIAN ARMED FORCES

Image
By: Next Generation Weapons Technology Network Centric Warfare and Indian Navy & IAF and land based units. More satellites will be launched as grid as launched previously. In addition to making platforms and infrastructure for network centricity, the Navy has also made organizational changes to create and efficiently manage the transition to seamless Network Centric capabilities. The creation of a new post of Assistant Chief of Naval S taff (Communications Space and Network Centric Operations) is step in the process to migrate from a ‘Platform Centric Navy’ to a ‘Network Enabled Navy’. During various exercises, Network Centric Warfare (NCW) has been one of the crucial aspects being validated. During the various coordinated exercises conducted by the Army with the Air Force, the endeavor has been to validate and integrate the use of all available assets, including satellites, UAVs and HUMINT (Human intelligence) to assist commanders at all levels in taking dynamic and pr
Read more

The Heat is on!! for INDIA as China Unveils its 5th Gen Stealth J20 Fighter Jet ; Pakistan expresses interest to buy

Image
China on Tuesday unveiled its J-20 stealth fighter jet at its biggest air show which will have major implications for India as it is the first indigenously-made fifth-generation Chinese aircraft which Pakistan has shown interest in acquiring. Two J-20 aircraft which made waves in the Chinese media in the last few years flew at the Zhuhai city air show where the Pakistan Air Force is also taking part flying with its J-17 Thunder jets which are jointly manufactured with China. This is the first, public show of the J-20 warplane. Pakistan, the largest importer of Chinese arms has said earlier that it is in talks with China to buy the FC-31 - an export variant of the same aircraft. The FC-31 was briefly flown in the 2014 Zhuhai airshow. The stealth aircraft is regarded as major breakthrough for China which is otherwise mostly reliant on Russian aircraft including advanced versions of Sukhois. India is yet to make stealth aircraft which can penetrate through enemy radars. The J
Read more

CHINESE PLA army conducts exercise with advanced Ballistic Missile

Image
China’s newly-formed Rocket Force has held an exercise with advanced DF-16 medium-range ballistic missile with a range of over 1,000km that could threaten a number countries, including India, Japan and the US.  Significantly the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), which is secretive about its weapons systems, has released a video of the recent exercise of its troops employing the advanced DF-16 medium-range ballistic missile.  China’s Rocket Force is a special contingent to handle range of missiles in its military’s arsenal. Several launch vehicles carrying the ballistic missiles were seen in the footage released to show the training of Rocket Force missile brigade soldiers around the Spring Festival holiday.  The participating units handled a number of scenarios, including chemical/biological contamination, countering satellite reconnaissance and electronic jamming, state-run China Daily reported on Monday.  The crews practiced in multiple manoeuvres, such as rapid loading, r
Read more