Prime Minister: I don't really see how the Soviet Union gets an outlet in the Indian Ocean by anything happening in East Bengal. I don’t think this makes any difference.
The question is now whether India is assisting elements or not. I think all that India is doing is to make a very realistic assessment of an existing situation. What can be a lasting solution? What solution or what agreement will the people of East Bengal settle for? That is the question. Our assessment is that the bittern as and the hatred have grown so much in the last months that it will be very difficult to have any solution which comes short of their aspirations.
Now, this is the reality of the situation. It is not whether we like it or we want it, as I said in my earlier remarks...
Question: Does the fact that you see no useful purpose in visiting the U.N. reflect an assessment of the significance and strength of the United Nations?
Prime Minister: Well, the United Nations has its weaknesses. But we have always supported it, because we feel it is essential to have such a forum. When there was a League of Nations, everybody felt that it was not doing what it should do, and so it was done away with. But you had then to have something else and it came up under the name of the United Nations. If we now get rid of the United Nations, I am sure we shall have another body which will be practically identical under a new name.
So, it is important to have some such body. But we all know that is docs suffer from certain weaknesses. It is not always able to assert itself. And, quite, often. national policies play a part within the United Nations, instead of being able to lift it above to higher plane.
Question: When Australian Prime Minister Mc Mahon was in the Press Club the other day, he said there must be no war between Pakistan and India. He said he would tell you this. Did he talk to you, and what was said?
Prime Minister: I did meet the Australian Prime Minister, but I don’t remember his using these words. Naturally he is concerned, just as President Nixon is concerned and the Russian leaders and all of us are concerned, that war is not a good thing, and that war creates many new problems and entails a lot of suffering for all the people. As President Nixon has said, and others have said, in today’s world there is no such thing as complete victory.
So, we fully appreciate this. I myself am fully in agreement with this. But, it is a question of the freedom, the security and the stability of our country. Those must be saved at all costs.
We are trying everything possible for this problem to be solved in a way other than war. We will not stop trying to look for some solution. Had notice been taken of this developing situation earlier, I am sure it could have been solved. But now, many other elements have come in. First, I would like to take this opportunity to say that India has no
