WASHINGTON: Indian Foreign Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Wednesday declared there had been no talks on trade between India and Pakistan, nor had there been any proposals to resume the flow of commerce.
Delhi’s top diplomat made the remarks while responding reporters’ questions at the Indian embassy in Washington, where he had travelled to attend the inauguration of US President Donald Trump on Monday.
In response to a question about trade with Pakistan, Jaishankar said: “After last year, there have been no talks with Pakistan about trade, nor has any initiative come forward from their side.”
He further said about the situation between the neighbours: “We never stopped trade. Any steps taken to stop trade with India were taken from their side in 2019. Our concern from the beginning was that they never granted us MFN (Most Favoured Nation) status, even though we granted it to them.”
Pakistan, under the government of then-prime minister Imran Khan, had downgraded diplomatic relations with New Delhi and suspended all bilateral trade in August 2019, when India revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status by repealing Article 370 of its constitution.
Last August, the Foreign Office (FO) had said trade with India was not on the cards, citing the unchanged situation in Indian-held Kashmir since the 2019 events that led to the initial suspension.
“The situation remains intact, and at this point, there are no bilateral talks between the two countries with respect to bilateral trade between Pakistan and India,” then-FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch had said while responding to a question regarding India’s lack of reciprocation to Pakistan’s overtures for restoring trade relations.
In March 2024, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had said that the relevant stakeholders would “seriously examine” the trade situation with India as he highlighted the concerns of the business community.
