Gandhi Urges End to ‘Star Wars’ Program

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who will meet with President Reagan in Washington next week, said today that the United States should halt its “Star Wars” space defense research program.

In a keynote speech in Egypt, his first stop on a five-nation trip, Gandhi called for the arms race to be reversed and for measures “to prevent an arms race in outer space.”

Earlier, in New Delhi, he told reporters: “ ‘Star Wars’ will add to world tension. ‘Star Wars’ is said to bring peace but in reality it will add to tension.”

Gandhi, chairman of the 101-member group of nonaligned nations, met with President Hosni Mubarak for an hour shortly after he arrived. Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel Maguid told reporters that he understood that the subjects included the Persian Gulf War and the Middle East.

Afghanistan Topic

Gandhi, who criticized aspects of U.S. foreign policy when he was in the Soviet Union last month, said he expects that his meeting with Reagan will cover Afghanistan, where rebels are fighting the Soviet-backed government--a subject on which Washington and New Delhi differ sharply.

Gandhi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Egypt in 15 years. Relations cooled in the mid-1970s, when then-President Anwar Sadat swung Egypt onto a pro-Western course and expelled the Soviet ambassador.

Gandhi also said in his speech that India is in close contact with the leaders of Iran and Iraq.

Diplomats said the Indian leader’s talks here on the Persian Gulf War might give new impetus to efforts by the nonaligned group to end what Gandhi called a “tragic conflict.”