The attempt to restart Indo-Pakistani talks ended in an avoidable fiasco recently. Avoidable, because glitches in the conduct of the talks by the hosts took it out of control. So the talks could not be called a failure as a result of deadlocked views. At times like these, it helps if senior opinion makers in the two countries keep the stove warm, so that any progress made in Track II can be taken up by serving professionals at the next try, on the basis of some groundwork having already been done. One such Track II effort has been the Chaophraya Dialogue in its fifth session, mostly on the banks of the friendly river running through the heart of Bangkok.
