COAS General Bajwa had offered transit trade talks to India during Afghanistan visit: Indian media
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NEW DELHI - India has rejected an offer from Pakistan for talks on transit trade to Afghanistan, with Indian Ministry of External Affairs official saying that “It wasn’t a real offer, as far as India sees it”, The Hindu reported.
The offer was made by Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa when he met President Ashraf Ghani on October 1 in Kabul.
During discussions on the renewal of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Agreement (APTTA), that lapsed in 2015, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani repeated concerns that trade with India over the Wagah border had been blocked by Pakistan, despite being agreed to in the APTTA.
“At this, the General Bajwa offered to talk about the transit trade issues with Indian officials,” said a diplomat privy to the talks, adding that General Bajwa reportedly said, “Ask the Indian side to speak to us and we will try and sort it out.”
President Ghani is understood to have conveyed the conversation to New Delhi through the Indian Embassy in Kabul. However, days later, Indian officials at the SCO Afghanistan-Contact group meeting in Moscow, told the Afghan delegation that it would not take up the offer for talks.
“It wasn’t a real offer, as far as India sees it,” an MEA official confirmed the government decision.
“The APTTA is a bilateral agreement. It is not working because of unilateral decisions by Pakistan not to honour it. So how can India-Pakistan talks fix that?” he said.
Pakistan has consistently refused to allow any Indian goods to travel over land Afghanistan, insisting that India use the sea-route via Karachi. Exasperated by Pakistan’s refusal to allow the truck trade, President Ghani has said repeatedly that he would cut off Pakistan’s access to Central Asia and issued a decree last week cancelling permission for Pakistani trucks to transit through Afghanistan.The Pakistani gambit on APTTA made little headway as a result, especially as
India and Afghanistan are now working on strengthening alternative routes, including the air cargo corridor launched in June this year, and the Chabahar sea route. While the development of Chabahar will take at least another year, India’s first major shipment of 1,30,000 tonnes of wheat via Chabahar will be dispatched on Sunday. Officials told The Hindu although General Bajwa’s offer was only made orally, and not followed up with a direct offer to India, it was considered significant for a number reasons. To begin with, the offer was made by the Pakistan Army Chief, considered to have a stronger mandate to implement such an offer than his civilian counterparts.
Earlier, Afghan government had banned the entry of Pakistani truck, saying Pakistani trucks will only be allowed up to the border crossing.
“The Afghanistan and Pakistan Trade Agreement (APTA) has expired. Before this Pakistan did not allow Afghan trucks to enter its territory. So we do the same and after this Pakistani trucks will be unloaded at borders and Afghan trucks will carry the goods to Hairatan and Shir Khan ports,” Transport Ministry Spokesman Hekmatullah Qawanch said.
