Telegram from Indian Charge d’Affaires in Belgrade

DATE: July 3, 1963

SECRET

FROM: Om Prakash, Charge d’affaires, Embassy of India, Belgrade

TO: Foreign Secretary, MEA

…In his speech delivered in the Federal Assembly immediately after he was proclaimed the President of the Republic, President Tito…Speaking of the dangers of the armament race, President Tito remarked that “it is our belief that an agreement on the banning of nuclear experiments would make it possible to take new measures in the wide and complex field of disarmament.” He welcomed the forthcoming meeting of the Soviet, American and British representatives in Moscow and expressed the hope that a way out of the existing impasse would be found. He emphasized that, in order to create an atmosphere of confidence and to improve international relations, it was both possible and necessary to take a series of other measures which would contribute to lessening the tension and alleviating the threat of war. He particularly mentioned the proposed setting up of atom free zones and banning of the spreading of nuclear weapons to new regions and countries. He extended his resolute support to the initiatives and moves aimed at establishing atom free zones in definitive regions, such as in Africa, Latin America, Central Europe, the Balkans, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean etc. “The establishment of such zones,” in his view, “would not disturb the existing balance of forces, but would have a great political and psychological effect.”