Talks between the foreign ministers of India and Pakistan Monday over new proposals aiming to end more than half a century of hostility, signal the intent of both sides to carry forward the momentum in their already-thawing relations. 

Indian External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri met on Sunday in New Delhi, a day after their foreign secretaries recommended that a dialogue initiated by the two sides early this year should be continued with a view to "further deepening and broadening" bilateral engagement.

After two days of discussions covering Kashmir, trade, shipping and telecommunications, the two longstanding South Asian rivals are set to issue a joint statement indicating the roadmap for future dialogue and encouraging breakthrough two years after the atomic adversaries stood on the brink of war.

For all who have watched with lingering doubts over a possible end of decades-old hostility between the two, the latest move is cause for optimism.

It has also helped eliminate the international community's concerns about whether the initial reconciliatory tendency between the long-time rivals could be carried forward by the new Indian government.

It shows there is a shared political will that war is not a desirable option.

What began in earnest last April, when former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced he would try once more to reach an accommodation with Pakistan, has now proceeded to an equally earnest offer by Musharraf for a major policy change on how the two nations' dispute over Kashmir should be settled.

The two countries have gone to war three times since gaining independence from Britain in 1947 - twice over Kashmir, which they both claim.

There was no lack of finger-pointing between the two neighbors. Exchange of blame over cross-border terrorism, for one, has remained one of the most damaging invariables in bilateral ties.

In spite of all their former antagonistic rhetoric, both need to take a new shot at peace and thwart pitfalls that undermined earlier attempts to bridge the rift.

(China Daily September 7, 2004)