India to Pakistan: Can We Talk?

NEW DELHI: Testing nuclear weapons may have, ironically, brought India and Pakistan closer together. "They're both facing sanctions, which are beginning to hurt," says TIME New Delhi bureau chief Tim McGirk, "and the only way to get sanctions lifted is by making some kind of effort toward nonproliferation and de-escalating nuclear tension." Today India announced that peace talks with Pakistan -- stalled since last year -- would resume on June 22, even as tensions continued over terrorist attacks in Pakistan and that country's missile development program.

The peace talks will ostensibly focus on the disputed region of Kashmir, but McGirk believes they're more likely to make progress on nonproliferation at this stage. Both sides have declared a moratorium on nuclear testing, and they're taking steps to reassure the world that they're not about to incinerate each other. There's nothing as effective as being cut adrift in a lifeboat to get a conversation started.