India pulls out of key regional conference in Pakistan

New Delhi cancels trip after delegate ‘contracts food poisoning’


Sehrish Wasif December 19, 2016
New Delhi cancels trip after delegate ‘contracts food poisoning’. PHOTO: PTI

ISLAMABAD: India has again pulled out of a key regional conference at the last minute in the latest sign of heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

Ministry of Science and Technology officials told The Express Tribune said that initially New Delhi had confirmed its participation in the three-day session of the Governing Council of the Asian and Pacific Centre for Transfer of Technology (APCTT), which kicked off in Islamabad on Monday.

India to attend Islamabad conference

“Just hours before the meeting was due to start, the Indian delegation cancelled their trip saying that their head delegate had contracted food poisoning.”

India had earlier in November boycotted the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) that was to be held in Islamabad.

It is believed that New Delhi’s decision is part of its efforts to isolate Pakistan internationally by staying away from such multilateral engagements hosted by Islamabad. The APCTT is a specialised regional Institute of the United Nations’ Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (UN-ESCAP), based in New Delhi and a team from India have come to Islamabad to look after all the management related issues for the three days conference.

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Conference

Addressing the inaugural session of the conference, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Rana Tanveer Hussain said the government gave priority to the implementation of 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 20th, 2016.

COMMENTS (16)

ToThePoint | 7 years ago | Reply @Dipak: and vice versa.
Dipak | 7 years ago | Reply There is no need for India to meet any Pakistani.
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