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By Li Hongmei (  Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-11-26 16:25

In September, Pakistani President Asif Zardari and Indian Prime Minster Manmohan Singh agreed to open a new trade corridor between Gujarat and Sindh, marking the historic reopening of trade between the two halves of Kashmir—split between Pakistan and India—for the first time since 1947.

This also elevated some hope in the international community that trade could succeed where UN resolutions and three wars have failed. From cement to natural gas, the two foes are turning to commerce to help forge common ground. The trade is largely symbolic, but it represents the first seeds of trust between the nuclear-armed enemies, whose squabbles have continually unsettled the region.

Some analysts observed it was still too early to state the ‘Berlin Wall’ in existence for 60 years along Kashmir had virtually collapsed. But the renewed trade across Kashmir’s so-called Line of Control, the 450-mile ribbon of Himalayan frontier that splits Kashmir and is lined on either side by nearly 1 million troops, is the most dramatic example of a gradual strengthening of economic ties between Pakistan and India.

Indeed, the measures are at the moment key first steps aimed more at establishing economic trust than political confidence-building efforts. Trade between the two countries has increased from $345 million in 2004 to $2.2 billion this year. And, to some degrees, the nascent cross-border trade also reflects a growing realization in New Delhi and Islamabad that the two neighbors must somehow thaw their past grievances.

In recent years, it has become clear that neither Pakistan nor India will cede any part of its Kashmir to the other, nor is either likely to support an independent Kashmir. The newly opened trade might well point to what many analysts say must be the final solution: a semi-autonomous state shared between the two.

For the time being, a total of 21 curiously specific items can be traded across the Line of Control—from apples to leather slippers, walnut-wood furniture, and pillow covers. Tradesmen on either side, however, are complaining high hurdles still remain for trade, and calling for free trade between Kashmir and Kashmir.

Even so, the economic way out the two have come up with is considered most constructive, and will help end the prolonged animosity between the two countries, deliver a blessing to a more secure Sub-continental region and contribute to the world peace.