External affairs minister S Jaishankar clarified India’s position on trade with Pakistan, saying that it was not New Delhi but the Islamabad administration that chose to suspend trade in 2019.
“We did not stop trading. It was their administration that made the decision in 2019 to stop trading with us,” Jaishankar said during a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
He also reiterated India’s ongoing concern over the most favoured nation (MFN) status, which India had granted to Pakistan, but Pakistan did not reciprocate.
“Our concern about 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,” said the external affairs minister.
In his remarks, he pointed out the absence of recent discussions or initiatives on trade from either side, saying, “So, neither such talks have taken place with Pakistan regarding trade from our side, nor did they take any initiative from their side.”
Speaking on India-US ties, Jaishankar saidthat both nations share a “strong degree” of trust and convergence.
“We have a very strong degree of trust today between India and the United States, a very high level of convergence of our interests,” he said.
He also mentioned that the two nations share a common sense of global responsibility and are dedicated to advancing their national interests while strengthening their bilateral partnership.
“A sense that while we serve our national interest, while we build our bilateral partnership, definitely on regional issues and global issues, there is a lot of good that we can do. So that sense of global good was also very evident conceptually in what we discussed,” said Jaishankar.
“In terms of the bilateral ties, this was the first day of the administration, so we had sort of essentially a broad brush conversation, didn’t get too deep into details, but there was an agreement, a consensus between us that we need to be bolder, bigger and more ambitious,” the minister added.
With ANI inputs