Bangladesh creation was Indian national objective, for US it was essential to preserve West Pakistan: Kissinger

Forty years after the events surrounding liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, former United States Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said while the creation of Bangladesh was Indian national objectives, for the US it was essential to preserve West Pakistan, which was important as the only channel of communication between US and China then.
This was period between his initial secret visit to China in July 1971 and President Richard Nixon's path-breaking visit of February 1972, Kissinger said while delivering gala dinner keynote address of Eleventh India Today Conclave to a mini-UN comprising ambassadors, high commissioners, visiting UK minister Vince Cable and top industrialists.
Nobel laureate said he had highest regards for his then adversary Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi "extremely strong and far-sighted person" who served her country's national interests with great determination. Speaking on The Making of an Asian Century' Kissinger said that someday the period would be seen as an incident in a long road in a situation where each country pursued its national interest and achieved their objectives.
To a question from MJ Akbar, Editorial Director India Today, Kissinger said he saw no problem in China accepting India as an equal. He said there were important forces in China that saw necessity of a peaceful international system. But task of ensuring a harmonious relationship vested with China, India or the US. On relationship between US and China, he said this was not an easy one since both countries had historically different systems of looking at international relations. "US thinks that every problem has a solution and could be solved in a short time," whereas Chinese believed "that there is no ultimate solution to any problem and that every solution would lead to new problems."
He said for Chinese, concept of international affairs was for a long time that each foreign state was a tributary state and never fully equal - political development had not kept pace with economic development in China but this was an issue its leadership was aware of. China faced problem of an ageing population, a massive migration of people from the country to cities and breakdown of traditional values. In his view these challenges ensured that China would not take an aggressive line internationally.
On Iran, he said a deal was possible if Teheran accepted that there had to be "irreversible restrictions" to level of their nuclear evolution. In turn, the west would give meaningful guarantees for security of Iran. Concluding, Kissinger said in his view key problems afflicting world are related to proliferation, energy security, economic system. He hoped nations would be able to find a way to harmonise their interests. It was not enough to have a vision for the future, he noted, but equally important "to have the courage to work towards it."