ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will proceed with “cautious optimism” at trade talks with India in New Delhi later this month. Observers here noted that care will be taken to protect Pakistan’s policy of diversification of trade with the countries of the Third World, specially countries in the Middle East and Africa. Items which already have stable international market and are good foreign exchange earners are likely to be least disturbed. … Therefore any trade arrangements with India may have to hinge on the existing as well as future potentialities of commercial ties with Bangladesh and other Muslim countries. … Trade with India in the first instance may have to go slow in view of the fact that mutual trust … will take time to generate.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies from the UN,] New York Jews yesterday [Nov 11] demonstrated their displeasure over the US Administration allowing a PLO delegation in New York as Palestinian delegates … arrived at UN headquarters amidst American security measures surpassing even those taken during former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s 1960 visit here. … Hundreds of Jewish demonstrators gathered outside the [delegates’] hotel and before [the UN].

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2024