Pakistan-India Relations

[RabzonKhan]

‘I hope to normalise ties with Pakistan'

The Hindu
April 17 2011

On Board the PM'S aircraft: Having taken up a commitment to normalise relations with Pakistan, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that if he succeeded in the endeavour, it would be a job well done.

“Well, if I can succeed in normalising relations between India and Pakistan as they should prevail between two normal states, I will consider my job well done,” Dr. Singh told accompanying journalists while returning from a five-day trip to China and Kazakhstan.

Asked to spell out five objectives he would like to achieve in the relationship with Pakistan, Dr. Singh quipped: “I think five is too much...”

 

[RabzonKhan]

India, Pakistan agree to enhance trade

Dawn
April 28 2011

ISLAMABAD: 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 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 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.

 

[Emmie]

Lets hope all hostilities between India and Pakistan are seized sooner then later..!

 

[Zeeshan360]

Peace is the solution for economic development

 

[RabzonKhan]

I believe credit should be given where credit is due, although overall the PPP government has been a disappointment so far, they have failed miserably to tackle many important issues(war on terror, economy, Baluchistan and Civil-Military balance of power) , but there are few good things that this government has done and one of them is rapidly improving relations with India.

I believe strong economic relations are key for developing a long-lasting friendly relation between our countries.


EDITORIAL : New economic strides

Since the visit of Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma to Pakistan last year, the tide of trade and economic cooperation between India and Pakistan has flown faster and in a better direction. The current month first saw the liberalisation of the visa regime between the two countries and now the Commerce Secretary of Pakistan, Muneer Qureshi and his Indian counterpart S R Rao met in Islamabad for the 7th Round of talks. The meeting between the two secretaries focused on easing and eliminating non-tariff barriers that had been the most contentious issue since talks on trade liberalisation began in the wake of Pakistan finally deciding to grant Most Favoured Nation status to India. Pakistan had feared that in the presence of these barriers together with the tariff lines, which are also due for slashing, the balance of trade would have tilted totally in favor of India. In its bid to assuage this fear, India has already agreed to reduce 30 percent, i.e. 264 tariff lines from the South Asia Free Trade Agreement’s (SAFTA’s) sensitive list, allowing the peak tariff rates to be reduced to 5 percent within three years. In a similar vein, Pakistan has agreed to lift restrictions on trade through the Wagha–Attari land route for all commodities by the end of October this year.

A new era of bilateral economic relations has emerged between India and Pakistan, with both sides striving hard to ensure smooth business exchanges across the border. The signing of three new trade agreements, the redressel of trade grievances, mutual recognition and customs cooperation are considered important business mechanisms to enhance trade traffic between the two countries, which would eventually help reduce poverty through easy exchange of goods and services at competitive rates. Opening more land routes, using the railway system and uncomplicated customs procedures are considered key to keeping products low priced. A working group on the Munabhao-Khokhrapar land route has been constituted. It has been decided that the Customs Liaison Board Committee would meet every month to take care of customs procedures. The Railway ministries of the two countries will also meet every month to work out ways to increase trade through the railways.

Pakistan and India have scaled unprecedented heights in their economic relations in just one year. Raising the mutual stakes on the economic front would make many concerns common, opening up ways to solve issues that have proved intractable in the past. As India’s new Finance Minister Mr Chidambaram has said on the economic ties between the two countries, “Shared economic ties will work as a bulwark against war.”

 

[CYNOX]

May the Region be united economically and against foreign and internal threats.