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If Pakistan does not grant Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, it will “obviously” be “disappointing,” External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said on Friday.
In an informal interaction with newspersons, the Minister said “it was supposed to (happen) by the end of the year, so we are still waiting”.
Khurhsid pointed out that the grant of MFN status was one of the two important confidence-building measures that the two countries had agreed upon. The other important measure that India and Pakistan agreed to was on issuance of visas, on which progress has already been made.
“If this (grant of MFN) does not happen now, then we will want to know if not now, when. Even a standstill is not a bad thing, but we must not slide back. That is the important thing. We will do our utmost to see that there is no slide back,” Khurshid said.
Responding to a query, the Minister said India did not have any information on the Army backing out of Pakistan granting MFN status to its immediate neighbour.
“We believe that the Army was supporting. I think that position remains the same. We do not have any fresh input that the Army has had second thoughts on this.”
On the issue of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visiting Pakistan, Khurshid said it was difficult to say anything on this just yet.
>ashwini.phadnis@thehindu.co.in
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