More effective economic assistance: India’s economic activity in Afghanistan has proved far more effective than Western aid. New Delhi can offer to set up a dedicated aid agency for Afghanistan to channel international economic assistance.

Promoting trilateral cooperation: In his speech to the UN general assembly last week, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari said cooperation between Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi holds the key to resolving regional problems. India must explore launching a trilateral mechanism for cooperation.

Supporting ‘Friends of Pakistan: Last week, on the margins of the UN, the US launched a new group called ‘Friends of Pakistan’ to organise an economic bailout for Islamabad. This group includes not only major Western nations, but also China, UAE and Turkey. Besides lending public political support to this group, New Delhi can pitch in with its own initiatives.

Reducing tariff barriers: India must announce an early unilateral reduction of tariff and non-tariff barriers that today constrain Pakistan’s exports to India. This will fit in with Dr. Singh and Zardari’s stated aim to open up the Punjab and Rajasthan borders for unfettered overland trade.

International market access: New Delhi must ask Rice to consider preferential access to the US and European markets to goods that are co-produced by India and Pakistan. Extending the proposal to set up “reconstruction opportunity zones” on the Pak-Afghan border eastwards will reinforce Pakistan’s regional economic integration.

Dr. Singh’s recent engagement with Bush, Sarkozy and Zardari have opened the doors for unprecedented Indian cooperation with the international community to promote stability, political moderation and economic modernisation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the talks with Rice, India must explore the prospects for a reconstitution of its neighbourhood in cooperation with the US and the other major powers.

... contd.