- Pakistani, Indian ministers sat in a position that their heads were turned away from each other all through one-hour debate
Frosty relations were on full display here when India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on dais with Federal Minister for Finance and Economic Affairs Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, often sharing cold vibes and aggressively countering Pakistan’s backing of China’s Belt and Road initiative.
This was the first instance of leaders of the two nations sharing dais in the midst of what is being dubbed as the worst crisis brewing in South Asia since 2008, the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency reported. Senator Dar and India’s Jaitley were among the four speakers on a debate organised on ‘Asia’s Economic Outlook: Talking Trade’ on sides of the Asian Development Bank’s 50th annual meet.
The PTI reported that the Indian minister sat in a position that his head was turned away from the Pakistani leader all through the one-hour debate and left immediately after a customary photo-op with panel members. “There were no warm hands shakes,” it said.
No question was put to the two ministers either on the recent tensions or the trade between the two nations, the Indian minister did not reply when journalists tried to speak to him. When Senator Dar backed One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative to connect China with the rest of Eurasia, Jaitley said that India has ‘serious reservations’ on the proposal because of sovereignty issues.
“I think connectivity in principle is a good idea but the particular proposal which has just been suggested by you, I think there are several other collateral issues and this is not really the forum for me to go into all this,” he said. Stating that the idea is always there for the future as the expansion of connectivity takes place between countries, he said he has no hesitation in saying that India has serious reservations about it (OBOR) because of sovereignty issues.
On the other hand, Senator Dar stated that Pakistan strongly supports the initiative. “It is one of the very important directions to be connected in the region and beyond… I think OBOR is a very good initiative. Pakistan is a part of it and very much promotes the idea,” he said. He also said the intra-regional trade should be focused and regional connectivity should be better.
He went on to mention of initiative like Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) and the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to link Pakistan, central Asian states, India and Iran. “So inter-dependence is the way forward,” he said. However, the indian minister said that India was not part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) but there was no force in the world which can prevent trade.