MUMBAI: In an exclusive interview given to NDTV 24x7 on 1 July, Nobel peace prize winner and the former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger expressed regrets about a conversation between him and the then president Richard Nixon about India and the Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi.

The insulting comments by Kissinger came in the open when the transcripts of Oval office tapes and some newly declassified documents were made public earlier this week.

In the NDTV interview, Kissinger said the remarks had to be seen in the context of the Cold War prevailing at that time. The interview of Kissinger with Maya Mirchandani on NDTV drew media attention both from print as well as international television channels.

In the interview, Kissinger went on to add to describe the conversation that, this was not a formal conversation. 'This was somebody letting off steam at the end of a meeting in, which both President Nixon and I were emphasizing that we had gone out of our way to treat Mrs. Gandhi very cordially, " says he.

The 82-year Kissinger told NDTV, "There were disappointment at the results of the meeting. The language was Nixon language."

Through the interview with NDTV, Kissinger also dwelled on points such as cold war, Islamic extremism and anti-Indian tilt. Speaking on anti-Indian tilt, he however said that he is adamant that those who argue the US played India and Pakistan against each other during the cold war years are off the mark.

He insists what was perceived as an anti-India sentiment within successive US administrations was in fact just a one off between the time India and the Soviet Union signed the friendship treaty in August 1971, and the Indo-Pak war that December.