NEW DELHI: India sent out conflicting signals on international relations and security in this part of the Asian region by announcing the easing of economic ties with its troublesome neighbor Pakistan on one hand and upping the ante along a critical part of its border with China on the other. A top army commander said on Wednesday that the Indian Army is alert for the nation's security and defense on the border with China. And, in Parliament, India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, it has been agreed in-principal to allow foreign direct investment from Pakistan. The Central Command of the Indian Army has got a new chief in Lt Gen. Anil Chait, who in his first comments on taking over, made an unusual direct reference to the unease on the border with China. The Central Command has jurisdiction over Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, a region which shares a border with China. India and China have a long-standing territorial dispute and went to war in 1962. India to date claims that areas annexed by China in this war are ‘disputed' but the issue has remained on the back-burner for years in the face of the burgeoning economic ties between the two though the unease persists. Meanwhile, on another frontier, India and Pakistan warmed up to enhanced economic ties with the former opening up its industry and markets to investments from its neighbor. In principle, India has agreed to allow FDI from Pakistan, Anand Sharma said in the Indian Parliament. Sharma is Commerce Minister and in the past presided over the External Affairs Ministry and engaged on the troublesome ties between the two countries. “The move is expected to enhance commercial engagement and bilateral trade between India and Pakistan,” Sharma told Parliamentarians in the Indian legislature. Pakistan is the only country from where investment is not permitted in India.
