When officials on both sides announced this week that no one expects any concrete results from the talks that have begun between Pakistan and India in Islamabad, they were wrong. The talks themselves are a landmark, and both governments deserve to be congratulated.
There is of course much that can still go wrong. The powerful torrents of half-a-century of history have cut deep chasms between the two powers. But the initial bridges that are now being built will prepare the way for a comprehensive filling of the fissures that separate New Delhi and Islamabad.
What makes these talks so much more important than any that have gone before is that there are no preconditions. Neither side is insisting on any point. Everything is being included in their deliberations. Nothing is being left out.
Thus when a settlement is finally reached, it will include compromises on both sides. In so many international agreements concessions are given through gritted teeth and it is evident from the outset that one or both sides will renege on them at the first excuse. Yet this settlement has the potential to be different.
By laying out every grievance and suspicion, every perceived wrong and grudge, the Indian and Pakistani teams will be able to go right back to the basics of their relationship. If the two sides understand each other from first principles, they have the chance to build the framework for a lasting settlement.
Both countries need this agreement. Failure to settle will condemn each of them to many more years of wasteful diversion. It will also destabilize a region which, without the danger of two nuclear powers going to war, could otherwise settle down to growing in prosperity and penetration of international markets. The ordinary people in both countries know this. While many may still hold strong views about the future of Jammu and Kashmir, they hold stronger views on the need for peace and security.
It is this meeting of two high tides of hope which makes the start of the talks so significant. There are still extremists in both camps who will seek to sabotage the process. There is still a minority who see the talks as a betrayal. But their interests must be subsumed by the interests of the significant majority of Pakistanis and Indians who want the conflict over.
More than the prize of peace will emerge from a settlement. Two states that have been at daggers drawn since the horror of partition are finally speaking to each other reasonably. This process is forging new bonds and understanding. These can reasonably be expected to form the basis of a close and fruitful economic partnership once a Kashmir settlement is hammered out. The process is only beginning but the signs are good.
