India, Pakistan say chronic trust deficit reducing, expect more warmth

Reuters: Years of mistrust between India and Pakistan is reducing and further improvement in ties should be expected, the foreign ministers of the nuclear-armed rivals said on Wednesday, in further signs of warmth underscored by a recent move by Islamabad to boost bilateral trade.

The prime ministers of the two countries will hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of a regional summit on Thursday to put their seal of approval on recent steps taken to improve ties, Indian officials said.

Lasting peace between the two countries is seen as key to stability in the South Asian region and to helping a troubled transition in Afghanistan as NATO-led forces plan their military withdrawal from that country in 2014.

Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna told reporters that the trust deficit with Pakistan that had held back any progress was “shrinking”, a remark echoed by his Pakistan counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar.

“I can certainly say from our side that we look at the environment to have improved considerably and the trust deficit that typically exists between the two countries and has existed for many years to have been reduced to a large order,” she told reporters in this remote Maldivian atoll where leaders of eight South Asian nations are meeting.

“We expect them to further improve the environment.”

Relations between the two countries are perhaps at their warmest since the 2008 Mumbai attacks that killed 166 people and derailed their fragile peace process after New Delhi blamed Pakistan-based militants for it.

Pakistan announced last week it would upgrade India to a most favoured nation, a move that would help normalise commercial ties by ending heavy restrictions on what India is allowed to export across the border.

The announcement was trumpeted on both sides as a milestone in improving relations shattered by the Mumbai attacks. Their formal peace talks, known as the “composite dialogue”, resumed in February but progress has been slow.

Less than one percent of India’s merchandise exports are sold to Pakistan, in terms of dollar value, but in September a joint statement pledged to double bilateral trade flows within three years to about $6 billion.