Indo-Pak dialogue off to a good start

The frame-work of a dialogue adopted after three days of official level talks in Islamabad envisages a series of meetings over the next six months. The foreign secretaries are to meet again in May or June to herald the 'composite dialogue.' Then the foreign ministers meet in August to review the progress made in the FS level talks with Kashmir and nuclear security issues topping the agenda.

In chronological -- or shall we say clinical -- terms, the latest initiative takes up where the two countries left off when a composite dialogue over some eight issues ran aground in 1999. This was to eventually collapse at a summit in Agra in July 2001.

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But there is more to it; the present initiative represents a fresh bid for peace swathed in a new realisation that they are too fatigued with hostilities to be only craving for a break. More so, when they have turned nuclear with all the attendant dangers to their security.

We are looking forward to a speedy resolution of their disputes culminating in an era of durable peace between the two hitherto inimical countries. We take heart in the fact that they have expressed a genuine intent to take the peace-process forward as reflected by their cautious avoidance of past pitfalls. It's heartening to note that the momentum generated by the last month's meeting between Mosharraf and Vajpayee has only been furthered. There has been no let-up in that basic build-up process.

Still, it is only a start and 'the hard part is yet to come'. The attitude they have shown to come to terms with each other needs to be sustained.