NEW DELHI, Oct. 28—The Soviet air chief is to arrive in New Delhi on Saturday for a six‐day visit that is expected to include talks on India's arms needs in the context of the present tense border confrontation with Pakistani troops.

The visit of Air Marshal Pavel S. Kutakhov will come only three days after the departure of a Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister, Nikolai P. Firyubin, who was also believed to have discussed Soviet military commitments to India in the event of an India‐Pakistan war.

Ever since India and the Soviet Union signed a friendship treaty in August, the parade of high Soviet officials to New Delhi has been heavy, but in the last several weeks—with tension mounting between India and Pakistan—it has be come almost frenetic.

The Russians are reported to have cautioned the Indians against any rash move that might precipitate a war with Pakistan, but at the same time they have reassured New Delhi of their continued strong sup port and, apparently, promised some new arms aid.

Nonetheless, the Soviet Union has kept its lines open to Pakistan, though it has a much smaller stake there, and many diplomatic observers think that Moscow hopes to play mediator — as it did at Tashkent after the brief war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir in 1965.

The Indian Government at tempted today to play down the significance of Marshal Kutakhov's visit, which was first revealed this morning by one of New Delhi's English‐language newspapers. After several hours of confusion, the Defense Ministry issued a two‐paragraph release that said Marshal Kutakhov was coming at the invitation of the commander of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal P. C. Lal. The statement noted, uncharacteristically, that the chief of the British Air Force had visited India recently in response to a similar invitation.

Indian officials, contending that Air Marshal Kutakhov's party could not accurately be called a “military delegation,” said that the trip was merely one in a series of visits by the defense chiefs of the two countries. But the officials disclosed that the invitation to Marshal Kutakhov was extended only three weeks ago, at the height of the border build‐up by India and Pakistan, and acknowledged that India's defense requirements would probably be discussed during the talks.