The reality that Pakistan’s and India’s foreign secretaries have met should give cheer to those seeking the normalization of ties between the two countries. While nothing concrete was officially agreed between the two sides, the very fact that the sides have met at the secretary level should be considered a good thing.

The key from here forward is devising a workable framework for the two sides to resolve their disputes. In truth, the present climate is nowhere close to achieving that goal -- but for a dispute that has festered for over six decades, small beginnings should be embraced wholeheartedly.
What are those disputes? At the core remains Kashmir. India has tried over the decades to paper over the cracks of its purported ‘ownership’ of Jammu and Kashmir but the fact remains that the local population is indigenously -- without the support of outside groups -- opposed to the Indian state’s alleged ‘ownership’ of the region. To this ‘core’ issue have been added the concerns over water and India’s ‘Cold Start’ doctrine.
For Pakistan there is a simple reality on both counts: when it comes to agriculture, more than 40 percent of the labor force is employed in the sector, meaning that significant changes would impact on the very existence of tens of millions of Pakistanis; and when it comes to a doctrine that envisages ‘rapid strikes’ inside Pakistani territory, the obvious fear is that Pakistan may be forced to lower its nuclear threshold, making the specter of a nuclear war more likely.
Unfortunately, when it comes to Pakistan-India relations, there is always a tendency to indulge in a blame game: India is not talking to Pakistan because it’s stubborn; Pakistan is not talking to India because it won’t entirely give up its ties to jihadi groups. And yet geography, history and military capabilities cannot alter the need for both countries to get along. Which of either the Indian or Pakistani imperatives will prevail? In truth, neither must. India must realize that it cannot keep relations with Pakistan hostage to incidents of terrorism.
On its part, Pakistan must realize that pretending it can be business as usual and as though recent incidents of serious violence ought to have no bearing on how ties between the two countries are affected must be discarded. If not quite as simple as ‘giving peace a chance’ the two countries must realize that the other remains a millstone around its neck: progress for either without peace with the other is not ultimately possible, and everything must be done to achieve it.