MOSCOW. Nov. 23, Reuter: Following is partial text of Kremlin leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s interview with Indian journalists shown tonight ‘on Soviet television on the eve of his four day visit to New Delhi.

On Afghanistan: We have always had good, friendly relations with Afghanistan under all the regimes and governments. These relations remain so today.

We are neither going to have any bases nor look for raw materials in Afghanistan. Developments are not simple there and both you ‘and we know their causes.

‘We responded to Afghanistan’s call for help some time ago and temporarily sent our troops into the country at the request of its government. Of course, we are not going to stay there forever. The ‘Afghan people and their government would hardly agree to it anyway.

We stand for a political settlement of the situation around Afghanistan, What is being done under the UN. Sponsorship I mean the mission of Cordovez is a real process, It can be a success and lead to a political settlement if, of course, Pakistan and the United States are for a political settlement.

But so far, we see that as soon as the process begins to show signs of progress towards settlement, they immediately take measures to thwart it. I nevertheless think that the day is not so far off when the ‘question of the political settlement Of the situation around Afghanistan is resolved. This will simultaneously mean the solution of the question of the withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan,

‘We stand for a nonaligned and independent Afghanistan; I want to say anew that we have no expansionist designs with regard to Afghanistan. This should be perfectly clear to the whole world.

On the Reykjavik Summit and Sdi : (Reykjavik) led us to new frontiers of understanding of problem’s and first and foremost demonstrated that agreements, even on difficult problems, were possible. That was the most important meaning of Reykjavik.

I regret our partners causing confusion and a mess in the minds of people not only in America but all over the world about the results of Reykjavik. It disappoints me, But the President and the incumbent administration as a whole do not seem free to make decisions.

Our task is to preserve everything positive achieved in Reykjavik and to finish the building the foundation bricks of which were laid there.

(SDI) is not only a lie but the main obstacle in the way of agreements which we were about to reach in Reykjavik.

Militarily, SDI means another round of the arms race, politically, if the SDI program is carried through, what is the point of conducting talks at all? The economic aspect of SDI is important as well It is a voracious monster. It will America and those countries ‘which will have to take part in that race as well. But the problems and needs of the developing world will remain.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 28, 1986