ABSTRACT
Indira Gandhi had not yet won the respect of the Soviet Union in 1968. These were the days when she was still to make a mark in Indian politics and her protest against Soviet military aid to Pakistan could be easily ignored. But in 1969 several events contributed to a change in the Soviet attitude. The border clashes with China made the Soviet leadership more concerned about security in Asia. Pakistan could not be weaned away from China, in spite of Soviet pressure. India, however, did not need to be converted in this respect and so the Soviet Union and India established closer relations once more. A draft of what later became known as the Indo-Soviet Friendship Treaty was prepared in Moscow in September 1969 and Soviet military aid to Pakistan was stopped in 1970. Indira Gandhi had split the Congress in the summer of 1969, projecting a ‘left’ image which impressed the Soviet Union. But she was not yet in full control of the political situation and the signing of the Friendship Treaty before she had won the next elections would have been inopportune. Nevertheless, after her great electoral victory of March 1971 she did not rush to sign this treaty. It was only in the context of the deteriorating situation in east Pakistan that she found it useful to enlist the Soviet Union as a potential ally.
