Zhou Enlai: Here, there is a limit if the US wants to attack China, Sino-Soviet relations; the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Alliance and Mutual Assistance would come into effect. This is not something Khrushchev as an individual can decide, but is instead decided by the Soviet people.

Raza: They (US) would arm India to the teeth.

Zhou: If the US arms India, it is only a threat to China and Pakistan, but it is not worth fearing. This tooth of India is already soon about to fall out.

–Conversation between Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai, and Pakistani

Ambassador Nawabzada Agha

Mohammad Raza – August 12, 1963.

At the time of the Cold War, Pakistan feared that the US would make a military and economic alliance with India and was in talks with China over its reaction if this were to happen. China was playing its game well and knew that India at the time would not prove to be an easy ally for China. Though the Sino-Soviet peace treaty would come to naught, as by the 1970s China would move to Detente with the US, Pakistan would find itself the real ally. Yet the fear, that the US would switch sides to the bigger more powerful neighbour was present then and is present now. At that time, we had excellent diplomats, who were in China and the US, but today our diplomatic efforts are falling apart. Will the US arm India to the teeth? Our fears from 1963 are coming true.