Introduction

Although the broad outlines of Soviet policy in South Asia were conditioned by Soviet views of their national interests and security demands, the USSR's objectives in the region varied according to whether the country was geographically contiguous, as in the case of Afghanistan, raising the stakes for Soviet domestic security; whether the state was an important international and regional actor, for example, India; what the role of other major powers (i.e., the United States and China) in the country was; whether the domestic sociopolitical circumstances in the country were progressive; and what the prospects for a transition to socialism were. If the proviso formulated under Khrushchev that the USSR should counter imperialist forces in the Third World with economic aid/trade and political support had been tempered by the realities of Soviet capabilities in the 1970s, there was also less necessity for Soviet policy to be as activist: the United States under Nixon had diminished the American desire to compete for India, and the international power alliances (e.g., between the USSR and India, Pakistan–China–United States) were well entrenched by this time. Concerns about China, on the other hand, were another matter. The Chinese had proved themselves eager and willing to enter the foreign aid game, giving assistance to virtually every country of the region except India, and their close relations with Pakistan and growing interest in the US were also of concern.