Move to ease tensions between two countries:
India, Pakistan agree to enhance trade
PAKISTAN: India and Pakistan agreed Thursday to set up a joint
working group to enhance trade, in a further move designed to ease
tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, officials said.
A joint statement released by India and Pakistan’s top civil servants
for commerce said they decided to undertake “new initiatives” to enable
the trade of electricity and petroleum products with energy-starved
Pakistan.
It was the first such meeting since the 2008 Mumbai attacks in which
10 Islamist gunmen killed 166 people, but stopped short of resulting in
any concrete policy other than to meet again in New Delhi in September.
India blamed the Mumbai attacks on the Pakistan-based banned Islamist
group Lashkar-e-Taiba and suspended a four-year peace process. But
acrimonious ties have started to ease since Indian Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh invited his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani to
watch the India-Pakistan World Cup cricket semi-final in northern India
last month. According to media reports in India this week, India plans
to export petrol and diesel to Pakistan to help its rival meet massive
energy needs and to open up a new market for Indian refiners.
The working group will discuss a cross-border pipeline and will
address the route and funding should Pakistan import electricity from
across the border, Pakistani commerce secretary Zafar Mahmood told
reporters.
India has granted Pakistan the status of “most favoured nation” and
in the statement, Pakistan “recognised” that granting equal status to
India would help to expand trade relations.
Trade between the neighbours is around $2 billion each year.
The nuclear-armed nations have fought three wars since independence
from Britain in 1947, two over the disputed territory of Kashmir. Indian
commerce secretary Rahul Khullar on Wednesday called for a quick
turnaround of trade talks after four previous rounds of commerce talks
ground to a halt in the wake of the Mumbai attacks.
“This is a process that was interrupted and that must resume and go
on. It must acquire significantly fast momentum if only to catch up for
the time that we have lost,” Khullar said. ISLAMABAD, Friday, AFP
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