India's basic assessment of China has been at variance with that of other countries, particularly the super powers. We had continued to advocate admission of China to the United Nations even in the face of the rude shock we had when China violated India's territorial integrity in 1962. Even after 1962 India maintained her friendly attitude towards China and her readiness to discuss the border problems. The upgrading of India's diplomatic relations with China in April, 1976 was not a radical departure but a continuation of India's time-honoured policy towards China.
I should like to recall here that I had cautioned against euphoria, as it would be patently wrong to expect that all would he well in our relations with China or that there would be enduring and stable harmony as a result of the exchange of ambassadors.
No one would deny the desirability of China being in the mainstream of international life, pennitting the winds of change from the east and west to reach China. If we have to narrow down areas of tension, we must face the problems when China participates not only in the United Nations Security Council and other U.N. forums but also in the more complicated areas involving exchanges in the commercial, fiscal, scientific and technological fields. It is necessary for India to be cautious about certain facets of the role China is playing and the game of the super-powers in the south and west Asian regions.
Certain facets of the role China is playing and the game of the foreign minister was Dr. Henry Kissinger, the U.S. Secretary of State. This was a coincidence. His visit took place within three weeks of my taking up the foreign affairs portfolio. Kissinger had visited India earlier, in July, 1971, as U.S. Presidential adviser on national security. He had made many personal forays into international negotiations, appropriately described as shuttle diplomacy, including overtures to China in his secret or not-so-secret incursions into Asian countries. But his visit to India after I became foreign minister was the first visit to India of a member of the U.S. President's Cabinet. Dr. Kissinger had by then acquired the reputation of being a high-ranking world politician apart from being an intellectual and an astute negotiator. I found in him a good and genial listener, and he was receptive to India's reading of the international situation.
It was after my meeting with Dr. Kissinger in October, 1974 in New Delhi that the United States agreed to supply nuclear fuel to India and modify its earlier stand after the Pokhran nuclear explosion in May, 1974. India and the United States were also able to expand areas of co-operation through the mechanism of joint Indo-U.S. committee devised by us to deal with specific subjects of concern to the two countries. In October, 1975I met President Ford, when the direction of Indo-American relations was set on a friendly path. Expansion of areas of cooperation between the two countries has continued more or less uninterruptedly under President Carter, except for the difficulties in the area of supplying nuclear fuel for Tarapur. The mechanism of joint committees is yielding good results half-a-decade after it was devised.