International Herald Tribune

The principal Western powers, the Soviet Union, China and Secretary-General Thant were reported yesterday to be engaged in new diplomatic efforts to prevent the possible outbreak of fighting between India and Pakistan.

Authoritative diplomats said that, acting independently, a half dozen governments with special ties to India or Pakistan have taken initiatives aimed at persuading the Indians and the Pakistanis to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis involving East Pakistan.

For the United States, the State Department spokesman, Robert J. McCloskey, said yesterday: “We have been and continue to be concerned about the possibility that the security situation in East Pakistan and eastern India could escalate and we have accordingly counselled restraint on both sides”.

On President Nixon’s instructions, Secretary of State William P. Rogers and Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs Joseph J. Sisco are to confer in New York tomorrow with Secretary-General Thant and other UN officials on the humanitarian aspects of the East Pakistan crisis.

But administration officials said that inevitably these conferences would touch on the political situation as well as on international peace-keeping possibilities.

Last Monday, Mr. Thant warned in a memorandum to the members of the Security Council that a major conflict could erupt between India and Pakistan and “could all too easily expand”.

Officials here said that Washington’s diplomacy was directed chiefly at Pakistan. Where the United States hopes to have retained some influence with President Mohammad Yahya Khan through the continued flow of economic aid and the refusal to block shipments of military equipment purchased by the Pakistanis before the East Pakistan conflict erupted in March.

U.N. relations with India are at one of the lowest points in decades, largely because of Indian anger over the military equipment shipments.

India believes that American policies serve to support President Yahya whose West Pakistani troops have been attempting to crush a secessionist movement in East Pakistan.

This repression has caused more than seven million East Pakistanis to flee to eastern India, creating the current tensions between India and Pakistan, which have remained hostile since their brief war in 1965.

Diplomats here said that one of the most positive recent developments has been a new awareness in the international community that both the Soviet Union and China are as anxious as the West to avoid a major conflict on the sub-continent.

Consequently, they said, Moscow which has close ties with India, is quietly counselling caution in New Delhi while publicly offering support for the Indian cause.

Diplomatic reports reaching Washington late last week indicated that Peking, which last March publicly proclaimed its determination to help defend West Pakistan, is privately advising President Yahya to act with prudence.

The threat of a war between India and Pakistan had raised fears of direct involvement by the Soviet Union and China on opposing sides.

But responsible American officials and foreign diplomats are now reported to believe that neither Moscow nor Peking wishes to see a war in which they might be forced into a direct confrontation.

Consequently, the judgment here is that the suddenly announced visit to New Delhi by the Soviet foreign minister, Andrei A. Gromyko, is more of a diplomatic peace-making mission than simply a gesture of support for India.