Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid today said that “good signs and welcome signs” are coming from the Line of Control (LoC) with no new incident of a fresh ceasefire violation. He also defended India’s stance on issuing visas for Pakistani women cricketers who want to play the world cup.
“The signs that we have, certainly from yesterday, are good signs and welcome signs. I think that when something good is done and happens you should encourage it by praising it and appreciating it because we have been complaining a lot about things going wrong. I think if something was right we should put in a word of appreciation,” Khurshid told CNN-IBN here today.
He also said that the government has not done anything wrong by issuing visas to Pakistani women cricketers.
“I don’t think that we have added to any negativity and we wouldn’t want to add any negativity. If there is something positive on the horizon, we should welcome it,” he said.
On a possible confrontation with his Pakistan counterpart, Khurshid said that direct discussion do not happen in a “jiffy” since that discussion becomes the basis for further dialogue between the heads of states.
"You have to be clear what your agenda is, you have to be clear how you will achieve it and you have to be clear about what your expectations are, both the minimum and the maximum. But having said that, I think it is important that we shouldn’t give an impression that whatever was said earlier is something that was said only for effect and it was not said because we substantively believed in something as on obligation and as something that you believe is very necessary,” he highlighted.
On the process of trade normalization between both the neighbours, Khurshid said India was “disappointed” when Pakistan did not offer the much–awaited ‘most favoured nation’ (MFN) or non-discriminatory trade status to India on the promise deadline of December 2012.
“It is true that we were looking forward to MFN for a long time and we have had a deadline and a date also fixed for it. It didn’t happen then which obviously was a little disappointing but both sides were working on it and it would culminate obviously in the meeting of the two ministers. I don’t have any information right now of any meetings being called off but it’s obviously also something that we will be reflected upon on both sides and then you will know that. Today, as I speak to you, I have no such information. Let us see. We take it one day at a time, one step at a time,” Khurshid said.
Commerce ministers Anand Sharma and Makhdoom Amin Fahim are expected to meet in Agra by the end of the month on the sidelines of the CII Partnership Summit.