ABSTRACT
Prolonged counter-insurgency operations were conducted by the Indian army in Nagaland and Mizoram which finally resulted in the insurgents accepting autonomous statehood within the Indian union. In the 1965 war, as Pakistan was running out of ammunition, the Chinese delivered an ultimatum to India thereby making India conscious of the significant possibility of having to face a two-front war. Initially the Soviet Union took a neutral position but once the missile crisis was behind it, it came out with strong condemnation of China and support for India. In 1971, in the aftermath of Dr Kissinger’s visit to Beijing - via Delhi and Islamabad - and the possibility of having to face a Pakistan-China-US alliance, with the Pakistanis having driven ten million refugees into India, an IndoSoviet Peace and Friendship treaty was concluded. India was facing the hostility of Western powers in the Security Council on the Kashmir issue and Indian attempts to procure surplus arms from the US were rebuffed.
