YOKOHAMA: Frosty Pakistan-India relations were on full display in Japan when Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley was on dais with his Pakistani counterpart Ishaq Dar, often sharing cold vibes and disagreeing over China`s connectivity initiatives.

Mr Jaitley and Mr Dar were among the four speakers who took part in a debate organised by the CNBC news channel on the sidelines of the Asian Development Bank`s 50th annual meeting.

The Indian minister sat with his head turned away from the Pakistani leader all through the one-hour debate and left immediately after a customary photo-op with panel members. There were no handshakes.

Mr Jaitley smiled just once, on a question about ridesharing firm Uber facing difficult times in the US, and said: `I think they are having a great time in India.

When Mr Dar backed the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative to connect China with the rest of Eurasia, Mr Jaitley said India had `serious reservations` on the proposal because of sovereignty issues.`I think connectivity in principle is a good idea but the particular proposal which has just been suggested by you, Ithink there are severalother collateralissues and this is not really the forum for me to go into all this,` he said.

Mr Dar, on the other hand, said: `It is one of the very important directions to be connected in the region and beyond... I think OBOR is a very good initiative. Pakistan is a part of it and very much promotes the idea,` he said.

Mr Dar also said that intra-regional trade should be focused and regional connectivity should be improved. He went on to mention initiatives like the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, meant to link Pakistan, central Asian states, India and Iran. `So inter-dependence is the way forward,` he said.

Mr Jaitley, however, said that India was not part of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership but there was no force in the world which could stop trade.

By arrangement with the Times of India