Nicaragua-Political Defeat for US

November 17, 1984 gap which has been the major obstacle to the growth of trade between the two countries, The Soviet Union probably does value some of its imports from India, particularly of tradi- uional items like jute and tea and also consumer goods like detergents, soaps and cosmetics that it can buy more cheaply from India than from the West. But the outlay for these goods is not very large and the Soviet Union could well buy them from other third world countries. Yet the Soviet Union is probably forced to push up its purchases from India, even at the cost of an unfavourable trade balance, given the geopolitical importance of India as world ally to it. Whether the trade balance is used by India to partly cover the cost of its huge defence purchases from the superpower is not known. The bilateral trade being curried out on a rupee basis, the surplus balance is of no use to India for its purchases from other countries.