India, Pakistan try 'trade diplomacy'

India and Pakistan, still at loggerheads on Kashmir and no closer to a full peace deal, are channelling their efforts into increasing trade in the hope that business can bring them together. Thirty-one-year-old Karachi food trader Kashif Gul Memom is among those eager to seize the opportunities offered by easier links between the estranged neighbours, which have fought three wars since independence in 1947.

"This is a change for the good. It's an exciting time," said Memom, one of the generation born after the painful partition of the subcontinent that gave birth to India and the Islamic republic of Pakistan.

"My generation of business people is putting the past behind us. We're looking to the future, India is such a huge market for us," Memom told AFP while at the largest ever Pakistani trade fair held in India.

The improved relations between the nuclear-armed rivals stem from Pakistan's decision to grant India "Most Favoured Nation (MFN)" status by year end, meaning Indian exports will be treated the same as those from other nations.

In further progress, the neighbours opened a second trading gate in April along their heavily militarised border, boosting the number of trucks able to cross daily to 600 from 150.

India now also says it is ready to end a ban on investment from Pakistan and the countries are planning to allow multiple-entry business visas to spur exchanges -- a key demand by company executives.

The warming commercial ties underline the new relevance of the private sector in the peace process, with prospects still low for any swift settlement of the "core issue" of the nations' competing claims to Kashmir. AFP