What’s the Latest Development?

The Pakistani Cabinet has voted to normalize trade relations with India by granting it ‘most favored nation’ status, the most recent thawing in relations between the longtime foes. The nuclear arch-rivals have been easing their former tension as Islamabad worries more about another neighbor: volatile Afghanistan.

What’s the Big Idea?
Washington is encouraged by this progress on trade normalization, particularly because economic interdependence is seen as an ideal path toward stability in South Asia. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called the Pakistan-India relationship “the real game-changer in the region.”