Bilateral Trade-Shock Treatment

ECONOMIC AND POLTICAL WEEKLY when one or the other big power was interested in sustaining the Indo-Pak conflict. As the cycle of big power relations begins to move again, all kinds of complicating factors are bound to arise in the South Asian situation. In fact, some have arisen already, as the problems faced by Bangladesh in finding a place at the United Nations indicate. The problem of keeping the subcontinent free from external pressures and influences may, therefore, be far more complex than South Block now realises. If the going in foreign policy has so far been good, it is largely because circumstances proved to be advantageous for India. Nothing could be more disastrous than to assume that all these circumstances were brought about by the genius of India's policymakers.