It is a situation made for good neighbourliness. Pakistan is Asia's fourth largest producer of cotton, but the floods earlier this year caused a significant set back to its cotton output. Cotton production areas along the Indus were severely affected by the flood waters. It is estimated that production of this raw material, which Pakistan both exports and uses for its domestic yarn and textile industry, is likely to record a 14 per cent drop this year. India, on the other hand, expects a bumper cotton crop owing to wider coverage. But heavy and untimely rains in India have affected the onion crop, pushing up prices of the basic vegetable beyond the reach of many pockets. In ideal circumstances, Pakistan and India could have ably helped each other alleviate these shortages. Their proximity and shared borders are tailor-made for this. A couple of consignments of Pakistani onions did land at the Attari border-crossing at the height of the onion crisis in India, helping to bring down the prices. Pakistan is a regular buyer of Indian cotton. It is encouraging that some kind of trade continues between the two countries despite the freeze in ties since the Mumbai terror attacks of November 2008. But the current situation of shortages offers a rare chance for improving relations. That the people on both sides are quick to recognise this was evident in the recent appeal by a representative of the Pakistan textile industry to the Indian government to permit more cotton to be exported across the border than had been fixed. Sadly, neither government seems prepared to move ahead.
A year that held some promise for India-Pakistan relations with several high-level engagements — the meetings between the Prime Ministers at the SAARC summit in Thimpu, between the foreign secretaries and the home ministers before that, and the foreign ministers in July — has ended without any progress. The UPA government's unending troubles over a series of corruption scandals since September may have made it averse to risk-taking behaviour, and talks with Pakistan are unfortunately perceived as falling in that category. There is a possibility that despite the less than cordial ending of the meeting between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmod Qureshi in Islamabad, they will meet again in New Delhi to pick up from where they left off. It is a measure of the continuing uncertainty in the relations that no dates are yet set for this meeting. Meanwhile, the two governments will do themselves no harm by making use of other opportunities to work on their relations, even if these take the form of onions or cotton.
The following correction was made in this Editorial on December 31, 2010 - There is a reference to meetings between foreign ministers in June. This has been changed to July.
