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India, Pakistan aim to double trade in 3 years
- Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma on Monday undertook a historic visit to Pakistan through the Wagah border with the commitment to double bilateral trade in the next three years and remove trade barriers to share economic prosperity with its neighbour and facilitate people to people exchange.
- India and Pakistan are working hard on opening the second gate and an integrated customers' post (ICP) at the Wagah-Attari border and hope to finish the task by April 30.
- Mr. Sharma said India supported Pakistan's case for a European Union-proposed duty waiver on 75 Pakistani products. The waiver was proposed to help Pakistan cope with the impact of floods that devastated the country in 2010.
- The Pakistan Trade Minister said it was the desire of Pakistan and its people that not only trade but people to people exchange should also increase in the coming times.
- Union Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma and Mr. Fahim also took part in the closing ceremony of the first ever ‘India Show' in Lahore.
- Mr. Sharma said he would like to finalise the details of a multiple entry visa regime at the earliest.
- Pakistan said that it would not be possible to announce the pruned ‘negative list' by February-end deadline as some more work needed to be done on the issue.
- It is estimated officially that a pruned negative list of trade items between India and Pakistan can increase their bilateral trade to around $10 billion in the next five years.
- India can now export only 1,946 items to Pakistan from the 8,000 tradable goods between the two countries. A negative list includes items which cannot be traded legally. Once the negative list came into effect, it would also reduce the illegal border trade between the two countries.
Amsterdam airport evacuated
- Dutch military police said on Monday an unidentified man who locked himself in a toilet after making a bomb threat at Europe's fifth-largest airport had no explosives when he was arrested.
- Gendarmes arrested the man, described by a witness as “confused” after he locked himself in restrooms
Ready to work with Maldives government, says China
- A day after new Maldivian President Waheed Hassan named a new Cabinet, China said it was ready to work closely with the government in Male to bring stability to the divided island nation gripped by political unrest.
- “Based on the five principles of peaceful coexistence, China would like to work closely with the Maldives government,” he added, referring to its policy of “non-interference” in internal affairs in an indication that China would not interfere on Mr. Nasheed's behalf.
- Economic ties between China and the Maldives have grown rapidly in recent years, driven largely by tourism. China, in 2010, became the biggest foreign source of tourism, surging ahead of Europe.
- The number of tourists from China grew by more than 56 per cent over the first half of 2011, accounting for more than one-sixth of all foreign tourists.
U.S. delivers strongest message yet to Sri Lanka
- The United States has despatched two senior officials to convey to Sri Lanka that it has to deliver on its promise of conducting an inquiry into war crimes, or face international sanction.
- While stressing on the need for an internal mechanism, Mr. Blake made it clear that if the internal mechanism failed, there would be pressure to establish “some sort of international mechanism” to probe human rights abuses.
- Reports such as the U.N. panel of experts report describes in some detail some of their concerns human rights violations and the war crimes allegations that have occurred particularly in the end stages of the conflict from January to May 2009
- Sri Lanka has not yet done enough to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee, and comprehensively address the question of accountability
- Many Sri Lankans have criticised the U.S. and have often tried to point to its own record on human rights in Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, and in other places across the world.
- Ever since the publication of the report of the United Nations Secretary-General's Panel of Experts on Accountability issues in Sri Lanka in April 2011, friends of Sri Lanka have mounted a campaign to get the country and its government off the hook of international scrutiny.
- Sri Lanka, too, set up the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Committee, along the lines of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, to go into the reasons for the conflict and suggest the way forward.
