Improvement in the India-Pakistan relationship – the main obstacle to greater economic cooperation in South Asia – has come whenever the two countries’ governments have agreed to work together to achieve a common good. That happened in 2004, when, after agreeing to initiate what they called a “composite dialogue” that would cover eight issues that had kept them apart for decades, India and Pakistan also agreed to work towards the creation of the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA).
印巴关系一直是深化南亚经济合作的主要障碍，而当两国政府愿意为共同福祉展开合作的时候，也就是这种关系得到实质改善的时候。2004年曾出现过这样的曙光，当时两国政府不但同意开展“全面对话”，内容涵盖了导致两国隔阂数十年的八个议题，而且还同意共同创建南亚自由贸易区（SAFTA）。如果不是达成了这有限的几个协议，南亚将一直停滞不前。