Foreign Relations

Rajiv Gandhi set out to improve relations with the US and expanded scientific and economic ties with that country. His policies of economic liberalisation and emphasis on information technology brought him closer to the US and other western nations. Rajiv Gandhi is said to have used a direct private channel to Ronald Reagan, the US president, which led to the cancellation of proposed supplies of AWACS aircraft to Pakistan.

Despite moving closer to the West, Rajiv Gandhi did not succumb to pressure on the nuclear non-proliferation issue which he linked, as Indian policy had always done, to universal disarmament. In June 1988, at the fifteenth special session of the United Nations General Assembly, Rajiv spoke about a world free of nuclear weapons, and put forward his ‘Action Plan for Ushering in a Nuclear-Weapon Free and Non-Violent World Order’.

In 1986, the President of Seychelles faced a coup and sought India’s help. The Rajiv Gandhi government authorised the Indian Navy to reach the coasts of Seychelles to help avert the coup in a mission named Operation Flowers are Blooming.

Then, in 1988, Maldives faced an attempted coup whose perpetrator was apparently assisted by armed mercenaries of a Tamil secessionist organisation from Sri Lanka, the People’s

Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). The Maldives government sought India’s help, upon which Rajiv Gandhi ordered the deployment of the Indian forces in an operation code-named Cactus. The coup was averted.

In 1987, India re-occupied the Quaid Post in the disputed Siachen region in what was termed Operation Rajiv. In December 1988, Rajiv Gandhi became the first Indian prime minister since Jawaharlal Nehru in 1954 to visit China. In 1986-87, there had been a standoff between Indian and Chinese troops at Sumdorongchu on the north-eastern border. However, Rajiv Gandhi’s visit led to better relations. He had a cordial meeting with Deng Xiaoping who, though he was not the head of state, or head of government or general secretary (of the Communist Party), was an all-important

person in China.

India and China signed two crucial agreements to establish a joint working group (JWG) - to seek fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable solution on the boundary question - and a joint economic group (JEG) and agreed to expand and develop bilateral relations in all fields.