India's Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said the country needed to expand trade with the neighbouring countries as in the next ten years it would be among the top manufacturing countries. He, however, did not specify the countries. India shared boundaries with Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. 

India should play an important role in improving relations with the neighbouring countries. Six hundred years ago, India and China traded with the whole world with the help of trade corridors through land borders., he further noted.

“I can see clearly that in the next 10 years, India will be among the top manufacturing countries. But what will be done with the products? Need to expand trade with the seven neighbouring countries,” he emphasised, making no specific mention of Pakistan with which India has very little trade. Recently, India sent tonnes of wheat to Afghanistan via one of the land ports, he pointed out.

Due to the past mistakes in drawing India’s boundary, Kartarpur, a revered Sikh pilgrimage site barely six km away, was left outside Indian territory, he noted.

The Kartarpur Corridor, inaugurated in 2019, links two important Sikh shrines — Dera Baba Nanak in Gurdaspur district of Punjab and Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur, Pakistan, where the Sikh founder Guru Nanak breathed his last. The corridor allows visa-free travel to pilgrims. “Hindus and Sikhs in India and across the world appreciate the corridor,” Shah said, according to a report in The Hindu. 

Shah was speaking at the 10th foundation day of the Land Ports Authority of India (LPAI), which manages nine land ports, mostly along the eastern borders. “India has a 15,000-km long land boundary. Before 1947, we were one, shared common heritage and culture… We need to be alert on the security front. The LPAI has the potential to increase trade with the neighbouring countries,” the minister, usually known for his hardline views on cross-boundary movement and border security, said.

The LPAI is largely responsible for creating, upgrading, maintaining and managing border infrastructure in India. It manages several Integrated Check Posts on the borders of India.

The authority could ensure the strengthening of cultural relations with the neighbouring countries, as people living along the border have the same culture, language and lifestyle, he stated. “It can also help in enhancing people-to-people contacts in addition to the diplomatic relations of with these countries.”

The trade corridor with Bangladesh was taking shape in a robust manner, he remarked at the same event. The minister had been previously critical of illegal immigration from Bangladesh and had called those who had illegally settled in India "termites".

(SAM)