Afghanistan rejects Pakistan's offer of resuming trade ties without India

Afghanistan has said no to Pakistan’s offer of resuming trade talks without India. Kabul is not ready to have talks without India in the loop. Earlier, talks between the two countries were suspended after Afghanistan insisted on including India. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani had said Kabul was not willing to talk to Pakistan on trade issues, including the trilateral trade agreement involving Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan without India.

Kabul has suspended talks on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Transit Trade Coordination Authority. The meeting was to be held in Kabul to review the implementation status of the agreement. Pakistan and Afghanistan had constituted a joint business council to promote trade and business. The aim was to double trade between the two countries from US $2.5 billion to US $5 billion.

According to official sources in Pakistan, “We have conveyed to Afghanistan that we wish to keep India out of our bilateral talks on trade and transit issues.” The intention has been conveyed to Afghanistan by officials who have had earlier rounds of talks with Pakistan.

Relations between Afghanistan and Pakistan have been at an all-time low after a recent spate of terror attacks in Afghanistan including one on its capital Kabul. Peace talks between the Government of Afghanistan and the Taliban have also hit a roadblock after the Taliban made the death of its supreme leader Mullah Omar public. The Taliban was said to be responsible for many recent attacks in Afghanistan and has allegedly been receiving support from Pakistan to carry out its activities in Afghanistan.

Going by the present circumstances, it is unlikely that the two countries would resume talks in the near future, in trade and transit.

Afghanistan not wanting to have a dialogue with Pakistan without India also shows the progress made in the bilateral ties between India and Afghanistan over the past few years.

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