10.12.15

Of Sushma in Pakistan....




The world is waiting, rooting for a change and let's not disappoint them, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj said in a message to Pakistan as she addressed the Heart of Asia Istanbul Process ministerial meeting on Afghanistan in Islamabad on Wednesday .
Ahead of her meetings with Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif and his foreign affairs adviser Sartaj Aziz, Swaraj underlined the need for India and Pakistan to do business with each other, saying nothing was going to benefit Afghanistan immediately more than allowing it overland access to Indian markets.
“Let me take this opportunity to extend our hand to Pakistan as well,“ she said. “It is time that we display the maturity and self-confidence to do business with each other and strengthen regional trade and cooperation. The entire world is waiting and rooting for a change. Let us not disappoint them,“ she said.
India, she said, is prepared to move on cooperation between the two countries at a pace which Pakistan was comfortable with. “But today , let us at least resolve to help Afghanistan -in the best traditions of good neighbourliness -through more effective transit arrangements,“ Swaraj said.
The ministerial meeting was inaugurated by Sharif and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who was received at the airport by the Pakistani prime minister himself.
Swaraj also held a meeting with Ghani during which the two reviewed bilateral ties and the ongoing peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan. She also met Iranian foreign minister Jawad Zarif. Stating that terrorism had grown in Afghanistan in both intensity and scope, Swaraj said India is ready to work with Afghanistan to strengthen its defence capability .



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