The Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, has said India can “contain Pakistan at any time, whether they have the bomb or don’t have the bomb”. The New York Times quoted him as saying in an interview: “It is just a question of spending more money and diverting resources, which we don’t like to do. But if we are forced to do it, we are forced to do it.” Gandhi declined to say what India would do if it was proved that Pakistan had developed a nuclear bomb.
Italy Defies US
A major row loomed between Rome and Washington after Italy freed a Palestinian leader wanted by the United States over the hijacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro and the murder of an American passenger. The Foreign Ministry said Italy would reply formally to the US protests in the next few days.
Arafat and UN
After a three-week debate on the international situation, the UN General Assembly gets ready for a 10-day commemorative session that is expected to bring more than 80 world leaders to the forum. Controversy threatens the opening day as the assembly takes up a resolution co-sponsored by India and five other non-aligned countries that proposes an invitation to PLO leader Yasser Arafat and SWAPO president Sam Nujoma.
UK against Terror
The British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, has affirmed Britain’s support for the stability and unity of India and asserted that she does not want any Sikh extremist plotting to destabilise the world’s largest democracy. The British government was only “too anxious and willing” to take action against the extremists but it could act only when there was evidence to prosecute them, she told PTI correspondent M K Razdan on the eve of the visit of the Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, to London.
