From 50 Years Ago: Bound By Treaty

Bound By Treaty

It is necessary to repeat the tautology that the ruling group in any country sees foreign policy as a means of defending, preserving or extending its own internal—and consequently the country’s external—interests. Looked at in that perspective, one of the more important reasons for the Government’s formalization of its links with Russia, could perhaps be to reinforce the country’s political system and structure. The Treaty will make it easier for the Government to externalise internal political threats by harping on the China bogey. The Government is also likely to have seen much more clearly than most of its critics that the fast disappearing chances of a political ­solution in East Bengal, the stepped-up activities of the Mukti Bahini, the threatening noises of war from Pakistan, the reluctance of the Americans and the Chinese to withdraw their backing from Pakistan, the continuing burden of the refugees and the clamour for some form of decisive action by a vociferous section of domestic public opinion, all were inevitably driving it towards choosing one of two courses…