Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Foreign Minister of Pakistan has refuted reports that the country has expressed its readiness to talk on restoration of India-Afghanistan trade route using Pakistan’s land, reported the Express Tribune.
“Pakistan has not agreed to consider Afghanistan-India trade through our land,” the Foreign Office said while quoting Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The rejection came after US Ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass had said that Pakistan is considering resumption of India-Afghanistan trade via its territory.
“Pakistan had already approached Afghanistan earlier this year and indicated its willingness to resume trade between Afghanistan and India through its land,” Bass had said in an interview to the Economic Times last week.
The report said that the revelation is significant given the fact that Pakistan has not allowed Indian goods to be transported through its territory into Afghanistan.
Bass also stated that the US did not believe that the conflict in Afghanistan would end with a military victory.
“No one in the US government is saying at this point that we expect this conflict to end with a military victory. We believe that this conflict will end with a political settlement,” he said.
