Washington:
External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, while addressing the status of India’s trade relations with Pakistan, clarified that New Delhi has not imposed the trade freeze, rather it was the Islamabad administration which had decided to freeze trade in 2019.
“We did not stop doing business. His administration decided not to continue doing business with us in 2019,” Mr Jaishankar said at a press conference in Washington DC on Wednesday (local time).
He also reiterated India’s long-standing concern regarding Most Favored Nation (MFN) status, which India had extended to Pakistan but which Pakistan did not reciprocate.
The Foreign Minister said, “Our concern on this issue was from the beginning that we should get MFN status. We used to give this status to Pakistan but they did not give it to us.”
Noting that there have been no recent discussions or initiatives on trade from either side, he said, “Therefore, neither have there been any such discussions with Pakistan regarding trade from our side, nor have they You have taken some initiative from your side.”
Highlighting India-US relations, Mr Jaishankar said there is a “very strong degree” of trust and convergence between the two countries.
“There is very strong trust today between India and the United States, a very high level of convergence in our interests,” he said.
He also said that both countries share a sense of global well-being and are committed to serving their national interests while building their bilateral partnership.
“There is a sense that while we serve our national interest, while we build our bilateral partnerships, certainly on regional issues and global issues, we can do a lot of good. So that sense of global good is also ideologically relevant.” It was very clear from what we discussed,”
“In terms of bilateral relations, it was the first day of the administration, so we essentially had a wide-ranging conversation, didn’t go too deep into details, but we had an agreement, a consensus that we need to be bolder, bigger To become more ambitious,” he said.
Notably, Mr Jaishankar represented India at the inauguration ceremony of US President Donald Trump. He also had a letter from Prime Minister Narendra Modi for President Trump.
Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th US President on January 20.
(TagstoTranslate) S Jaishankar (T) India Pakistan relations (T) S Jaishankar on India Pakistan trade