Pak pulls out of WTO meet in India due to diplomatic standoff
India has invited over 40 countries for the WTO mini-ministerial meeting on March 19-20.
New Delhi: Amidst recent diplomatic standoff between the neighbouring countries of India and Pakistan, Islamabad diplomatic sources said that "Pakistan was pulling out of the WTO ministerial meet in India due to the current situation."
"It was Pakistan's decision to pull out at the last minute, and the Indian side could not comment on it," an Indian official was quoted as saying by NDTV.
India has invited over 40 countries for the WTO mini-ministerial meeting on March 19-20.
India had also invited Pakistan to participate in the meeting which was confirmed by Pakistan's Commerce Minister Pervaiz Malik earlier in February. But now, the invite has been rejected.
"India sent a note verbale to Pakistan on Friday with seven points highlighting in chronological order incidents of Indian diplomats being harassed," sources told NDTV.
Pakistan had earlier this week asked High Commissioner to India, Sohail Mahmood to return home for an unspecified time after Pakistan alleged that its diplomats in India were being "harassed". The move was downplayed by the Ministry of External Affairs as "routine".
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Pakistan had also accused the Indian officials of intimidating the children of a senior diplomat while they were on their way to school.
However, Indian sources said that the standoff was months old, when in May last year, Pakistani government "intermittently blocked Indian government websites in Pakistan" and "visa seekers faced trouble".
After this, there were reports of power and gas supply being shut for the Indian diplomats in Islamabad, followed by door bells being rung late at night at the homes of diplomats in both the sides.
India is hosting the WTO meeting with the objective of facilitating an exchange of views on various issues and challenges relating to multilateral trading system.
This would be the second mini-ministerial meeting being hosted by India. The first was in 2009.