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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan ties with US, India improving: FM Khar |
| 2011-11-06 |
| [Dawn] Pakistain's most troubled foreign relationships have improved in recent months, its top diplomat said on Saturday, pointing to upcoming trade talks with New Delhi and broad agreement on regional security goals with Washington as evidence. Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, in an exclusive interview with Rooters, said negotiations to normalise trade with India would allow progress on other issues between the two South Asian rivals. "I think it's broadly agreed that we need to make some simultaneous progress on these issues," she said. Trade has long been tied to political issues between the neighbours, who have fought three wars since independence from Britannia in 1947. The hope is that an increase in trade will feed into wider trust between the two countries and help them resolve major flashpoints, like the disputed Kashmire region, although a solution to this problem has proved intractable for decades. "But there has been a great improvement in the environment," she said. "I think we can move forward." She strongly denied No, no! Certainly not! that Pakistain was not committed to finalising Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status for India, as alleged by an unnamed Indian government official on Friday, who said Islamabad was "backtracking" on the issue in the face of domestic opposition. "There is absolutely no question of backtracking of cabinet approval of trade normalisation with India," she said. "I want to completely dismiss any indication that there's any retraction on what we said." |
| Posted by:Fred |