Ambassador Says Arms to Pakistan Will Not Cause War

The Pakistan ambassador to the United Nations said yesterday that India should not feel threatened by a resumption of arms sales to his country by the United States.

Iqbal Akhund told fellows of the Center for International Affairs that even with the new arms purchases Pakistan will be unable to win a war against India.

"Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto wrote to Mrs. [Indira] Gandhi and assured her that had we ever the intention of starting a war with India--and we have no reason--we could hardly win it with the spare parts and few other items we'll be buying from the U.S." Akhund said.

Daniel P. Moynihan, professor of Government and former U.S. ambassador to India, said yesterday he did not think Pakistan could win a war with India.

Balance of Forces

"The balance of forces in South Asia is very much on the Indian said", Moynihan said. "I hope Bhutto wrote such a letter."

Akhund proposed negotiations between Pakistan and India aimed at "mutual and balanced force reductions, much as in Europe."

Akhund said Pakistan wants to develop its economic potential and this "would be easier if we had the cooperation of our friends throughout the world," he said, "particularly those closest to us."

Moynihan said he thought India and Pakistan both want more mutual economic cooperation.

"There's a genuine difference from the attitudes of ten years ago." Moynihan said, especially since Bangladesh became an independent nation making India ten times Pakistan's size.

"The U.S. genuinely to encourage reapproachment between the two South Asian neighbors," Moynihan said.