ISLAMABAD: Between India and Pakistan, a friends friend is often a foe. So, when Afghanistan has expressed interest in India joining the Afghanistan Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA) to promote trade in the region, and India is keen too, Pakistan says, whats the hurry? Pakistans commerce minister, Khurram Dastagir, who is visiting Kabul to inaugurate an exhibition of Pakistani products has said, As for Indias joining this agreement, I think this is, at the moment, premature.
Blaming it on tensions between India and Pakistan since last year, the minister said, We are hoping that these tensions will dissipate, and the first step would be the normalisation of trade between Pakistan and India, and once that happens, I think there will be no impediment in normalising the old relationship between Afghanistan and Pakistan through India.
The Pakistani minister said Eventually we would like to have a joint South Asia-Central Asia corridor, but regretted now is not the opportune time.
Pakistan and the landlocked Afghanistan signed APTTA in 2010, replacing the Afghanistan Transit Trade Agreement (ATTA) of 1965. Kabul insists that APTTA allows Afghan trucks to carry Afghan products to the huge markets of India and China as well as the rest of the world through the seaports of Karachi, Port Qasim and Gwadar in Pakistan. However, Pakistan places its own roadblocks. It allows Afghan trucks to transport goods up to the border with India but it has not yet permitted Indian products to be exported to Afghanistan.
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Ahmad Shakib Mustaghni has said Kabul would gladly welcome India if it were to come on board. Indias ambassador to Afghanistan Amar Sinha said New Delhi is willing to become party to APTTA, claiming that Pakistans policy issues have hindered Afghanistans access to the key Wagah border post. He told Tolo TV in an interview that Our desire and our request always has been that we should keep these issues separate. We should allow the people and the businesses to prosper.
On his part Khurram Dastagir told reporters in Kabul that India and Pakistan would need to first take the good-faith step of normalising trade relations between them. As for Indias joining this agreement, I think this is, at the moment, premature, Dastagir said in Kabul on Tuesday, 14 April, according to Tolo TV.
The Pakistani delegation arrived in Kabul just a day after the Indian Embassy in Afghanistan delivered an official letter to the Afghan government expressing Indias willingness to join APTTA and enhance its trade ties with Afghanistan.
But it has been known for some time that Pakistan is more keen on partnering with its ally China in Afghanistan, while it sees India as a rival, destabilising force in Afghanistan. Gwadar port, for instance, which is a key access point between Pakistan and Afghanistan has been both financed and constructed by China. It opens up a route for transporting Middle East oil by a 3,000-km long land route from Gwadar port to Kashgar, the northwestern Chinese city. It will also give China access to Gulf countries, and the possibility of building a naval base on the Arabian Sea in future. It has just been reported that Gwadar port, which is believed to have strong military possibilities, will be operated by China for a period of 40 years.
Dastagir went on to say in Kabul that Pakistan would build modern land ports this year at the two main border crossings with Afghanistan to facilitate the movement of goods and people. He said the installations will be equipped with modern communication systems to help enhance bilateral connectivity in terms of customs and information technology.
Afghan acting commerce minister Muzamil Shinwari expressed the hope that the discussions would help overcome hurdles in the way of fully implementing APTTA, which is meant to facilitate Afghanistan to import and export its goods through Pakistani trade routes and ports.
While China and Pakistan act in their geo-political interests in the region, with China building an economic corridor connecting Gwadar to China’s Xinjiang via roads, railways and pipelines to transport oil and gas linking it to the planned Maritime Silk Route to more than 20 countries, India is exploring other options. Only 76 kilometres from the Gwadar port in Pakistan is Iran’s crucial Chabahar port that provides a transit route to land-locked Afghanistan for India.
To counter China’s presence in the region, India had last year, announced that it would upgrade the Chabahar port. The port which is surrounded by a free trade zone, is crucial particularly because Pakistan does not allow transit facility from India to Afghanistan. The lifting of international sanctions on Iran has the potential for opening up the region for trade, that could benefit Afghanistan hugely and help its economy recover from the battering it has received from years of conflict.
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