Opinion December 8, 1981, Forty Years Ago: Anger of Qutub

The Indian delegation arrived in Beijing on December 6 night to start talks on the Sino-Indian border dispute. Eric Gonsalves, head of the delegation, told reporters it would be premature to forecast what would happen during the talks. “But we come with expectations of making further progress,” he said. Gonsalves was received at the airport by Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Han Nainlong, who will head the Chinese side at the talks. This is the first time in 21 years that the two sides will sit together to begin sorting out the tangled border question, which New Delhi believes continues to stand in the way of the complete normalisation of ties between the two countries. The last time officials from India and China had discussions on the issue was in November 1960 in Rangoon — those talks were unsuccessful.

South Africa

South African soldiers knocked out the central headquarters of the South-West Africa People’s Organisation during their deepening invasion of Angola since the 1975 Angolan war, a military spokesman said on Monday. However, the spokesman said the three-week operation that ended on November 20 but was only disclosed on Monday was much smaller than an invasion launched in August. Unlike the August operation, there was no contact with Angolan forces or their Soviet advisers during the 240 km deep strike, the spokesman said.