The Hindu Business Line : No intention to have Pak-centric policies: Sinha

The Minister for External Affairs, Mr Yashwant Sinha, flanked by a group of CEOs from Pakistan at the launch of ``India - Pakistan CEO's Business Forum'' in the Capital on Sunday. — Ramesh Sharma

New Delhi , Sept. 14

INDIA has said that it was willing to strive for the dismantling of all Pakistani-specific restrictions, if any, which are being perceived as non-tariff barriers.

At the same time, it hoped that Pakistan would sooner rather than later give India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) treatment and remove all non-tariff barriers.

"Despite the ups and downs in India-Pakistan relations, India has continued to extend the MFN treatment to Pakistan. India seeks normal trade relations with Pakistan. We would like to promote trade in a manner that people of both countries benefit," the External Affairs Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, said in his inaugural address at the launch of the India-Pakistan CEO's Business Forum here today.

The forum is an initiative of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Young Presidents' Organisation (YPO).

Mr Sinha also said that the need for greater economic interaction between India and Pakistan is a self-evident reality.

Even though the official bilateral trade is currently of the order of $200-250 million in a year, the Minister highlighted that the estimates of actual trade, taking into account trade through third countries, is around $2 billion. "But even that is only a glimpse of potential that exists," he said.

Mr Sinha told reporters on the sidelines that economic co-operation should not be held hostage to political differences and that trade relations should be given enough room to grow without being hindered by the slow progress in normalisation of relations between New Delhi and Islamabad.

In his address, Mr Sinha also said that India has no intention or desire to be Pakistan-centric in its policies even as it hoped that Pakistan would also succeed in shedding its obsession with India.

He cited the practice of turning every international and multilateral forum into a battleground to attack each other and held that this practice should end.

"While our respective domestic media exult in the coverage of such verbal duels, the sad reality is that it lowers the standard of debate of the entire forum in which it takes place and are a major source of embarrassment to all those forced to witness this unseemly spectacle. Let us put an end to this practice. The forthcoming United Nations General Assembly will be a test of this," Mr Sinha said.

Mr Sinha also used the occasion to highlight the areas where both the countries have not been able to move forward.

"For example, the first round of civil aviation talks has not proved as productive as we would have liked them to be. A tea trade delegation and a team of jurists from India were denied visas to go to Pakistan for reasons, which remain a mystery to us. We, however, do not intend to allow these setbacks to cool our enthusiasm in any manner. We are committed to persevering with the process of normalising the relationship," he said.

The High Commissioner of Pakistan, Mr Aziz Ahmed Khan, suggested that the communication links between the two sides should be restored and even expanded.

"Unless rail, road and air links are fully operational, any meaningful economic cooperation will remain elusive despite our best intentions," he said.

He held that an early implementation of all the confidence building measures, announced by the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Mr Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali, on May 6, would help in increasing people to people contact with increased economic cooperation.

The measures included restoration of road, rail and air links between the two countries.

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