I do not have the benefit of referring to official sources or documents for the interpretation of the conduct and practice of India's foreign policy between 1974 and 1977, and my assessment of international developments of the period is based largely on memory. I may submit that personal diplomacy with heads and foreign ministers of sovereign nations paid rich dividends during this period. Whether it was in south Asia, west Asia, Europe, the Americas, the Caribbean region or the Far East, I exchanged views with leaders of other countries in an informal ',setting and with utmost cordiality. I do not recall any dull moment in the dialogues with my counterparts in foreign countries whom I met in New Delhi. in their capitals, or at international' gatherings in New York, Paris. Kingston. Lima, Havana, Algiers or Colombo. We attempted to understand each other's point of view, never forgetting our own perceptions and interests.
An amplification of some of my ideas on India's foreign policy will be found in the text of the interview which immediately follows these pages. The questions, devised within the framework of the themes dealt with in the anthology, refreshed my memory, brought back to my mind some of my views on crucial questions of my time, and encouraged me to think aloud on the future configuration of powers from which we cannot escape in this far-from-perfect world.
I hope the book in its present format will interest all those concerned with Indian diplomacy — general readers, political commentators and scholars in India and abroad. After all it is the inter-action of the views between -the -common man and the intellectual, the people and the thinker, one leading or following the other at varied points of time or in altered historical settings, which shapes policies and their application to international as well as to domestic affairs.