ABSTRACT

As people enter the 1990s, the international system is undergoing a process of change so broad in scope and fundamental in structure that its impact is bound to be universal. The South Asian states, and India in particular, have responded to recent developments in Eastern Europe and East Asia with an admixture of awe, elation, and concern, combined with a strong sense of uncertainty about their long-term effects. The propensity in New Delhi in 1989 was to project Rajiv Gandhi's role as a world statesman rather than to emphasize his more active and probably more important role in several critical developments in South Asia. Rajiv Gandhi's highly publicized visit to Beijing in December 1988—shortly after Gorbachev's second visit to Delhi—raised speculation about the possibility of substantial improvements in Sino-Indian relations. Several changes in the overall Soviet perspective on key Asian policy issues have raised concern in New Delhi about the utility to India of the Soviet connection.