Material from P. Kutsobin outlining information reviewed by B. N. Ponomarev to be used in a conversation with I. Gandhi. Topics for the conversation include the dangers of the arms race, Israeli aggression in the Middle East, and Soviet build up in Afghanistan. Special attention is given to how questions related to the Communist Party of India should be addressed. 

Brezhnev and Gandhi discuss India's relationship to Pakistan and Afghanistan, highlighting the Soviet Union's involvement with the two countries. Gandhi also speaks about India's domestic situation and asks Brezhnev to cooperate in increasing India's defense capabilities. Brezhnev tells Gandhi confidential information about recent developments in Soviet-China relations.

The following CPSU Central Committee document, dated 1 April 1979 and signed by Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, Defense Minister Dmitrii Ustinov, KGB chief Yurii Andropov, and CC International Department head Boris Ponomarev, provides a strikingly candid assessment of the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan that the Soviet Politburo confronted in spring 1979. The report attributes the increasing success of the Islamic opposition (i.e., the Afghan Mujaheddin) to the “miscalculations and mistakes” of the PDPA (People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan) regime that seized power following the April 1978 “revolution.”