No Breakthrough in India-Pakistan Trade Talks, Reveals Jaishankar

Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has revealed that no trade talks have taken place between India and Pakistan since last year. During a press interaction at the Indian embassy in Washington, Jaishankar clarified that neither side has proposed resuming trade discussions.

This statement comes after Jaishankar’s recent visit to Islamabad for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) conclave, where he had informal conversations with his Pakistani counterpart, Ishaq Dar ¹. However, these interactions did not lead to any formal trade talks or agreements.

He pointed out that India never stopped trade with its neighbouring country. “Their [Pakistani] government took the step to stop trade in 2019.”

“Our concern was that they never granted us MFN [Most Favoured Nation] status, even though we granted it to them,” Jaishankar added.

“Every country has the sovereign right to take its decisions..about what are their international commitments and responsibilities. We can have our respective views on it,” he concluded.

Pakistan downgraded its ties with India after the Modi-led government unilaterally changed the special status of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in August 2019 — the decision that Islamabad believed undermined the environment for holding talks between the neighbours.

Islamabad has linked its decision to normalising ties with New Delhi with the restoration of the special status of the IIOJK.

Despite the frosty ties, the two countries agreed to renew the 2003 ceasefire agreement along the Line of Control (LoC) in February 2021.

Last year in August, the Foreign Office categorically stated that there were no talks taking place between Pakistan and India for the resumption of bilateral trade.

The then FO Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch cited India’s illegal and unilateral steps in IIOJK in 2019 as the reason behind the suspension of bilateral trade. “This situation remains intact,” she emphasised.

However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has expressed the willingness to reevaluate trade relations with the arch-rival with its president Nawaz Sharif hoping to meet Indian prime minister Narendra Modi in the near future.

“I have always been a supporter of good relations with India,” Nawaz said during an interview with Indian journalist Barkha Dutt last year, expressing hope that there was an opportunity to revive the relationship.

“It would have been a great thing if PM [Narendra] Modi had also attended the SCO summit. I do hope that he and us will have an opportunity to sit together in the not-so-distant future,” the former premier said.

Earlier in 2023, Nawaz stressed the need to improve relations with neighbours including India and Afghanistan, noting that during his tenures two Indian premiers — Atal Bihari Vajpa­yee in 1999 and Narendra Modi in 2015 — had visited Pakistan.

The PML-N president had also congratulated Modi on his re-election as the Indian prime minister for the record third time.