Welcoming Pakistan’s move to liberalise trade with India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said he could visit the country if there is “something solid” to celebrate.
On his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul, Singh said he thanked him for the trade concessions his government had made to India recently.
“I had a good meeting with him. I thanked him for the trade concessions that they have announced,” the Prime Minister said on board his special aircraft while returning from four-day visit to South Korea.
Singh said Gilani asked him when was he coming to Pakistan on an official visit.
“He (Gilani) said when are you coming there (Pakistan). So, I said let us do something solid so that we can celebrate,” Singh said.
Pakistan had recently announced its decision to liberalize trade with India by moving from positive list to a shorter negative list of goods.
The Prime Minister said Gilani also asked him if India could supply power to Pakistan from Punjab.
“I said we will look into it,” he said. Singh and Gilani had a ‘pull aside’ meeting just ahead of the plenary session of the Nuclear Security Summit.
“It was a pull aside, but a little more extended,” Indian foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai said.
While Singh was accompanied by Mathai and national security adviser Shivshankar Menon, Gilani was accompanied by foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar.
Briefing reporters on the meeting later, Mathai said both the leaders believed that things were moving quite well in bilateral relations. He said Singh appreciated the fact that discussions on trade relations had moved forward as committed by Gilani.
The Pakistan Prime Minister said it was indeed his intention and commitment to go ahead with improving trade relations with countries.
Gilani told Singh that the decision on moving to the negative list for trade with India was not “entirely easy”. He said there had been differences on the issue but his government had decided to go ahead.
“The Prime Minister congratulated Gilani and said that he appreciated the move very much,” Mathai said.
Both the Prime Ministers also talked about taking forward the bilateral ties forward in other areas of the relationship.
