Despite threats and clashes between the two arch-rivals India still hoping that Pakistan would soon grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, India's top diplomat to the US has said that such a move would clear the ways for closer trade ties between the two neighbours.
"Pakistan has assured us that it is going to provide MFN status to India. We are waiting for that decision to actually be announced formally and implemented. That would certainly be a boost not only to confidence but also would clear the ways for much closer trade ties between the two countries," Indian ambassador Nirupama Rao said. She was responding to questions after delivering remarks on 'US-India Economic Agenda in 2013' at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based eminent think-tank.
"India and Pakistan are two close neighbours. We cannot disregard that basic fact, whatever the differences between us may be. We have put in place a process of dialogue between India and Pakistan and significant part of that process does focus on how we may build better trade ties between the two countries. And there has been considerable movement on that front in the last 18 months," she said.
The business constituency, especially in Pakistan, Rao argued, had a bigger desire to open trade with India. "They see benefit. They see good thing flowing out of that process. That itself is very encouraging," she said. Noting that Afghanistan is a hub of Asia, the heart of Asia, the connective tissue between South and Central Asia, Rao said: "We have to ensure that Afghanistan plays that role, for its own well-being, for our own well-being.