Critical Triangle continues....

For example in April 1955 at the Afro-Asian summit in Bandung, Pakistan Prime Minister, Mohammed Ali Bogra made a point of differentiating between the USSR and China. While referring to the Russians as imperialists, he insisted this label would not apply to China. During the summit at his meetings with Zhou En Lai, Bogra reiterated his call for friendly ties with China, the Northern-Tier strategy notwithstanding, to which the Chinese premiere replied “we achieved a mutual understanding although we are still against military treaties.”

The year 1962 saw the humiliating defeat of India by China in the border war. This resulted in a massive increase in US military aid to India despite protests by Pakistan. China after all was a communist country that the US had wished to contain. By May 1962, Pakistan had begun negotiations of their disputed border, but had stalled almost immediately.

However, by December after the conclusion of the India-China war Pakistan announced it had reached an accord with the Chinese. This infuriated not just Delhi but also Washington since Pakistan had disregarded US warnings about cosying up to the Chinese, especially at a time when the “uncommitted world” had been attacked by a communist nation.

Pakistan Ambassador Aziz Ahmad’s farewell call on Kennedy in 1963 saw an exceptionally blunt dressing down. Kennedy started about the anti-US tone of the Pakistani press “display little appreciation of this primary concern of ours and instead apparently feel impelled to move toward communist China and away from us because of Pakistani concern about India. In the last few months the Pakistani press has exceeded all but communist China in its attacks on us. One would gather from the Pakistani press, which is closer to the government of Pakistan that the American press is to the US government, that the US was enemy number one” and urged the ambassador to “bear in mind that the US has one basic interest – prevention of control over Europe by the USSR or Asia by Communist China. Pakistan should understand this outlook since it accepted the responsibilities of an alliance with us.”

To be continued....