ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday played down reports that it was about to give India a land route for its trade with Afghanistan, saying it was “premature” to draw this conclusion from a Pak-Afghan agreement to review the bilateral transit trade treaty.
Pakistan and Afghanistan inked a memorandum of understanding to revisit an existing agreement on transit and trade when the Presidents of the two countries met in Washington on Wednesday.
Although India is mentioned nowhere in the MoU, the Dawn newspaper said India would be the main beneficiary of a new agreement between Pakistan and Afghanistan on transit trade.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was present at the signing of the MoU, said it committed the two countries to achieving a trade transit agreement by the end of the year “which we believe will have great economic benefits for both peoples.”
Both Kabul and New Delhi want Islamabad to allow Indian goods to transit overland to Afghanistan through Wagah. But Pakistan has so far stood firm on not conceding this demand, linking it to the resolution of the Kashmir issue or some other quid pro quo. Opening up a route through Pakistan will not only ease New Delhi’s trade with Afghanistan but also lay out for India a trade route with Central Asia. Pakistan also fears that opening up the Wagah-Khyber route will result in Indian goods flooding Pakistani markets.
Bombarded with questions on whether Pakistan was about to change its stance to India’s benefit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said at his weekly briefing that “it was too early” to say that India would stand to gain from any new agreement on transit trade between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“Pakistan and India will discuss this bilaterally,” Mr. Basit said. “It is premature to talk about India.”
