Mikhail Gorbachev, who passed away early Wednesday morning, batted for strong Soviet-India relations. He visited India twice in 1986 and 1988. When he visited New Delhi in 1986 along with his wife, Soviet first lady Raisa, he was greeted by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and his wife, now-Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
He also visited India in 1988 as well where the prime minister greeted him and both leaders asserted the importance of close Soviet-India ties.
In 1986, when Gorbachev visited India, he was accorded a grand welcome. Flag-waving schoolchildren and thousands of people were lined along the route from the airport to the presidential palace. The LA Times reported that Gorbachev was welcomed with ‘spangled elephants and red-coated soldiers mounted on camels’.
“When friends come calling, our hearts light up. We are delighted to have you in our midst," Rajiv Gandhi, then prime minister, said during the press conference. Gorbachev said India and Soviet Russia need to build stronger ties for lasting global peace and said Soviet Russia will always support India’s real interests.
“We shall not take a single step in our foreign policy that could damage India’s real interests," Gorbachev said.
Gorbachev visited India with a large delegation. His defence minister and Soviet armed forces chief of staff also accompanied him and the first lady. Then deputy prime minister Vladimir Kamentsev, former foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze and Anatoliy Dobrynin, head of the Soviet Communist Party’s foreign affairs department and armed forces chief of staff, Marshal Sergei Akhromeyev were part of the delegation.
According to a report by India Today that year, seven plane-loads of foodstuff, security and communications equipment, and 31 cars accompanied Gorbachev. At least 500 security men accompanied Gorbachev and most stayed at Delhi’s Centaur hotel.
When Gorbachev visited Delhi, posters of him and Rajiv Gandhi lined up every street of capital New Delhi. It was during the meeting that Soviet Russia and India discussed avenues of cooperation in sectors of space, infrastructure development and defence.
At that time, Gorbachev’s visit to New Delhi was his first official trip to an Asian country. He spent four hours with Rajiv Gandhi in a personal meeting with only interpreters present. Gorbachev and Gandhi also signed the Delhi Declaration which ‘called for the complete destruction of nuclear arsenals before the end of the century, and asserted the importance of solving problems in a non-violent way.’
When Gorbachev met Rajiv Gandhi, many in the US and the west felt this relationship was the beginning of an aggressive new partnership which would impact global developments. It was also during this meeting that Russia committed to provide India with the latest military hardware. It was months after this meeting India received advanced MiG29s from Soviet Russia.
Both leaders also discussed at the time the adverse effects of the militarization of outer space. Ex-prime minister Rajiv Gandhi also criticised the West and stood with Russia on the issue of Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI). The SDI was a Reagan administration program for a space-based antimissile system proposed by US president Ronald Reagan. Gandhi and Gorbachev both called for lasting peace and disarmament.
When Rajiv Gandhi visited Moscow in 1987, Gorbachev and Gandhi held a private meeting which lasted for six hours. He also dedicated a monument to his mother and former prime minister Indira Gandhi and named a Moscow square in her memory.
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