Suspending trade with India has cost Pakistan. Can the new government shift gears?
Pakistan’s newly appointed foreign minister has signaled a desire to reopen trade with neighbor and arch-adversary India – an aspiration that, if pursued, would mark a major diplomatic shift.
Islamabad suspended trade in 2019 after relations with Delhi deteriorated, in part because of India’s decision to strip the majority-Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir of its legislative autonomy, and Pakistanis have been paying the price ever since.
“I was speaking to an Indian company just yesterday that wants to sell us cumin,” says Mubashir Hussain, who owns a spice and dry fruit import business in Lahore.
