Soviet Relations with India and Vietnam

324 Pages·1992·32.799 MB·English

by  Ramesh Thakur, Carlyle A. Thayer (auth.)

SOVIET RELATIONS WITH INDIA AND VIETNAM
Also by Ramesh Thakur
IN DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND: Foreign Policy Choices in the Nuclear Age
INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION (editor)
INTERNATIONAL PEACKEEPING IN LEBANON: United Nations Authority and
Multinational Force
PEACEKEEPING IN VIETNAM: Canada, India, Poland and the International
Commission
*THE SOUTH PACIFIC (editor)
Also by Carlyle A. Thayer
THE SOVIET UNION AS AN ASIAN PACIFIC POWER (co-editor with
Ramesh Thakur)
WAR BY OTHER MEANS: National Liberation and Revolution in Vietnam
*Also from St. Martin's
Soviet Relations
with India and
Vietnam
Ramesh Thakur
Associate Professor of Political Studies
University of Otago, New Zealand
and
Carlyle A. Thayer
Associate Professor, Department of Politics,
Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra
Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN 978-1-349-09375-5 ISBN 978-1-349-09373-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-09373-1
© Ramesh Thakur and Carlyle A. Thayer 1992
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1992 978-0-333-43751-3
All rights reserved. For information, write:
Scholarly and Reference Division,
St. Martin's Press, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, NY 10010
First published in the United States of America in 1992
ISBN 978-0-312-07207-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Thakur, Ramesh Chandra, 1948-
Soviet relations with India and Vietnam I Ramesh Thakur and
Carlyle A. Thayer.
p. em.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-312-07207-0
1. Soviet relations-Foreign relations-India. 2. India-Foreign
relations-Soviet Union. 3. Soviet Union-Foreign relations
-Vietnam. 4. Vietnam-Foreign relations-Soviet Union. 5. Soviet
Union-Foreign relations-1945- 6. Soviet Union-Foreign relations
-Asia. 7. Asia-Foreign relations-Soviet Union. I. Thayer,
Carlyle A. II. Title.
DK68.7.15T47 1992
327.4705-dc20 91-30213
CIP
ToZubeida
Contents
List ofTa bies and Figures ix
Acknowledgments xi
1 Soviet Policy Towards the Third World and Asia 1
Political 3
Economic 12
Military 19
Asia 24
Conclusion 26
2 Overview of Political Relations 2 7
India 30
Vietnam 53
Conclusion 62
3 Conjunctions and Disjunctions of Political Interests 6 9
Ideology 69
Of Great Powers and Regional 71
Winds of Change 77
Conclusion 85
4 Military Relations 89
India 89
Vietnam 115
Conclusion 132
Coments
5 The Pursuit of Nuclear Autarky 135
India as a Pariah Nuclear Power 137
India-USSR 151
Vietnam 160
Conclusion 162
6 Economic Relations 167
Growth of Trade 168
Patterns of Trade 176
Foreign Aid 186
Conclusion 198
7 Costs and Benefits of Economic Relations 205
Vietnam 221
Conclusion 227
8 India and Vietnam 231
Political 232
Economic 245
Military 252
Cambodia 254
Conclusion 266
9 Conclusion 269
India 272
Vietnam 286
Conclusion 295
Appendix 1: The Indo-Soviet Treaty 299
Appendix 2: The Soviet-Vietnam Treaty 303
Index 307
Tables and Figures
Tables
4.1 Estimates of Soviet Military Assistance to Vietnam, 1955-64 117
4.2 Estimates of Soviet Military Assistance to Vietnam, 1965-78 118-19
4.3 Estimates of Soviet Military Aid to Vietnam, 1979-88 124
6.1 Soviet Economic Aid to Vietnam, 1955-90 189
6.2 Estimates of Soviet Economic Aid Disbursements
to Vietnam, 1954-90 190-2
8.1 High-level Indian-Vietnamese Visits, 1978-90 242-3
8.2 India's Exports to Vietnam, 1975-89 250
Figures
1.1 Soviet Trade with Socialist and Developing Countries,
1960--89 14
1. 2 Soviet Aid by LDC Categories, 1970-85 16
1.3 Percentage Shares of Arms Exporters to the Third World,
1951-89 21
1.4 The Arms Trade with the Third World, 1985-89 21
4.1 India's Major Arms Suppliers, 1951-85 92
6.1 India's Exports to and Imports from the USSR, 1963-89 170
6.2 Soviet-Vietnam Trade, 1955-87 175
6.3 Composition of Indian Exports to the USSR, 1970-85 181
6.4 World Exports to Vietnam, 1982-88 201
6.5 World Imports from Vietnam, 1982-88 202
7.1 Soviet Trading Ratios, 1969-89 211
8.1 India's Exports to and Imports from Vietnam, 1975-89 250
Acknowledgments
Ramesh Thakur would like to record his appreciation of a research grant
from the University of Otago which enabled him to visit India, as well as
to purchase a microcomputer for processing thoughts into words. The
concluding stages of this book were completed while he was a Visiting
Fellow in the Center of International Studies, Woodrow Wilson School of
Public and International Affairs, Princeton University. The generous
hospitality of the center, the school and the university is gratefully
acknowledged. Travel to Princeton was facilitated by the award of a
Fulbright grant, for which he is sincerely thankful to the New Zealand-US
Educational Foundation.
Carlyle Thayer would like to record his appreciation to the Rector of
University College, Australian Defence Force Academy, Professor G. V.
H. Wilson, for the award of successive Rector's special grants which
funded research trips to Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, Vietnam, the
United States, the United Kingdom and India in 1987--8, and to Vietnam
in 1990. He would also like to thank the Aspen Institute, Washington,
DC, for funding a trip to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia in 1989.
Sir Edmund Hillary, New Zealand High Commissioner to India, and
his deputy Mr Graeme C. Waters were most helpful in arranging and
otherwise facilitating interviews with key policy actors in New Delhi. Mr
A. P. Venkateswaran and Mr Romesh Bhandari set aside some time from
their pressing schedules to go over some details and finer points of the
India-Vietnam-USSR relations. Dr Mochtar Kusumaatmadja of Indonesia
kindly responded to queries from Ramesh Thakur about efforts to find a
solution to the Cambodian conflict.
Staff at the US embassy in New Delhi were also generous with their
time in engaging in discussions with us. Air Commodore Jasjit Singh,