Trade against terror and tragedy

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countries. In a similar vein, Safta offers us an opportunity to make it a vehicle of peace and prosperity in the South Asian region.

Such vehicles of peace have become very important, given the growing incidence of terrorism in the sub-continent. Until recently, it was only India that was a victim of crossborder terrorism, but of late, Pakistan has also experienced it. This has demonstrated that terror has no religion and knows no national boundaries. Terrorism has thus become a common problem for both nations. Cooperation between the two countries on this issue will go a long way in building trust and confidence and mitigating myths and distrust between the nations.

Historically, Pakistan has been a close ally of the US. The US has been helping Pakistan not only economically but also in many other ways. The US considers Pakistan a great ally in combating international terrorism. Of late, India has also inked a civilian nuclear supply agreement with the US to meet its rising energy needs, and many political observers comment that in doing so, it has compromised its long-standing stance of non-alignment. Keeping such rhetoric aside, it may be beneficial to look for opportunities within the framework under construction by which the US (and EU) foreign policies can work in favour of supporting bilateral initiatives.

River diplomacy in Argentina, for example, accelerated bilateral cooperation in the nuclear arena. The initiative to expand Indo-Pak “bus diplomacy” could also flower with EU and US support. To create peace through economic (trade) cooperation in the Middle East, for example, the US has offered a Qualifying Industrial Zones scheme under its Generalised System of Preferences. Under this scheme, exports from Jordan and Egypt containing inputs from Israel can enter the US market duty free. A similar preferential access scheme, if offered by the US to India and Pakistan, would be an element in the mutual cooperation efforts between the two countries for peace in the region.