India-Pakistan truce is a welcome step

It can set the stage for renewed process of dialogue and de-escalation of hostilities

The truce called by India and Pakistan last Tuesday along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir evokes the kind of hope that many political analysts find easy to define more by its purported evanescence rather than its promise of tenacity; nevertheless, it is the latter that needs to be encouraged and emphasised. Deserving of its unprecedented status, the ceasefire agreement, a major breakthrough given the fractious nature of bilateralism in the recent years, has the power to enable the two countries to finally slough off their old, tired skin of hostility and for this reason alone, its import cannot be downplayed.

This is an opportunity, a great one, that both countries must seize with unprejudiced enthusiasm to abandon their ossified positions in the blame game and look at the larger picture of where they need to head to, to fulfil their respective geopolitical ambitions.

Both countries are gifted with a wealth of resources and yoking their progress to political maturity and non-brinkmanship will yield better results than getting mired in repetitive episodes of neighbourly spats. Both countries must also capitalise on this truce to discharge their responsibility towards their respective peoples. The hundreds of residents in the villages on either side of the LoC whose lives have been severely disrupted, and displaced, due to the continuing hostilities, see this truce as a lifeline as they cautiously return home hoping for normality. Their hopes cannot be dashed.

For India and Pakistan, this truce should be the first building block to set the stage for a renewed process of dialogue and confidence building measures that will ultimately lead to peace in the subcontinent.