Gorbachev Gives Gandhi Warm Welcome as India Festival Opens

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev rolled out the red carpet Friday for Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi as the two presided over the opening of a Festival of India.

Moscow’s elaborate welcome for the visiting dignitary reflected Soviet interest in retaining close political ties with the world’s second-most-populous nation.

Gorbachev and Gandhi met for six hours in private and made several public appearances in connection with the multimillion-dollar festival of Indian art, culture and dance, which is scheduled to last for a year.

The Kremlin chief dedicated a monument to the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Rajiv’s mother, and named a Moscow square in her memory. She was assassinated in 1984.

Gorbachev’s wife, Raisa, in a bright red dress, was present for Friday’s ceremony, along with Gandhi’s Italian-born wife, Sonia, who wore a traditional Indian sari.

Last November, when Gorbachev visited New Delhi, he was welcomed with spangled elephants and red-coated soldiers mounted on camels.

“Let Soviet-Indian friendship . . . develop and strengthen forever and ever,” Gorbachev said Friday. Gandhi, speaking at a Kremlin lunch in his honor, said that relations between the two countries are characterized by commonly held views “on issues of cardinal importance: peace, development and disarmament.”

He said that as a result of steps taken by Gorbachev, the “outlook for limitation and reduction of nuclear armaments is more encouraging than it has been for a long time.”

But Gorbachev used the occasion to accuse the North Atlantic Treaty Organization of blocking possible agreement on removing medium-range and shorter-range missiles from Europe.

The United States and the Soviet Union have been negotiating the removal of U.S. and Soviet medium-range and short-range missiles from Europe as a first step toward wider reductions in arms. But some NATO members say some nuclear weapons should be kept to deter a possible attack by Soviet and East European forces using conventional weapons.

Gorbachev said that because of these differences, a U.S.-Soviet agreement on medium- and short-range missiles is “just a possibility,” the Tass news agency reported.

The Soviet leader also said that NATO leaders’ views of world development in the 21st Century show “their perplexity and lack of realism.”

“We propose dismantling the entire system of weapons of mass annihilation and reducing other weapons to the level of sensible sufficiency,” he said in his speech. “In response, we are being offered a dismantling of a social system--our system. The absurdity of this ‘dilemma’ does not even deserve refutation.”

He did not specify how Western proposals would dismantle the Soviet system.

Guests at the lunch included 16 members of the Politburo and other high officials of the Communist Party and government.

Later, Gorbachev attended a dinner at the Indian Embassy, a rare gesture of respect for a foreign visitor. According to Tass, the evening passed in “a warm and friendly atmosphere.”