At Brussels meet, India accuses Pak of blocking trade

NEW DELHI: The face-off between India and Pakistan found echoes on the margins of a crucial international meeting on Afghanistan in Brussels, with New Delhi accusing

NEW DELHI: The face-off between India and Pakistan found echoes on the margins of a crucial international meeting on Afghanistan in Brussels, with New Delhi accusing Islamabad of impeding the development of regional trade.

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Speaking at an event on regional integration on the sidelines of the Brussels Conference on Afghanistan, minister of state for external affairs MJ Akbar said Pakistan had “blocked” the transportation of Afghan goods to India for political reasons.

Akbar also said the terrorism and violence unleashed against Afghanistan had affected work on development projects, delivery of assistance and inflow of investments. Though he did not name Pakistan in connection with the violence in Afghanistan, Indian and Afghan officials have for long accused Islamabad’s security establishment of backing the Afghan Taliban. Ahead of the conference, Pakistan’s foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz accused India of “sponsoring terrorist campaigns” and ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir. This, he said, was affecting the Pakistan Army’s ability to deploy more resources on the border with Afghanistan.

Akbar, who is leading the Indian delegation to the Brussels meet, said Afghanistan needs infrastructure, connectivity and access to regional markets for its development. He said Afghanistan’s exports had traditionally found their most lucrative market in India, which had offered a special facility at the Attari border crossing with Pakistan for Afghan products.

“Unfortunately, this access has been blocked for political reasons by Pakistan. Nations cannot become walls aborting a trade and culture that is as old as written history, and as powerful as the lore etched in common memory,” he said.