Islamabad: So what do prices of onions and potatoes got to do with peace with Pakistan?
While some may scoff at the question, the truth remains that the vegetable produce from India being sold in Pakistan has done a lot to bring down prices in that country.
But India’s fruits and vegetables aren't just playing goodwill ambassadors in Pakistan - they are contributing to a bilateral trade that has tripled in the past three years.
A few months ago, Pakistan government decided to allow the duty free-import of onions, tomatoes and potatoes from India, after floods drove the price of commodities through the roof.
The move came as a direct impact of improving ties between the two countries.
"Indian vegetables have improved the market and the prices,” says a Pakistani vegetable vendor, Abdus Shakoor.
Shakoor - a wholesale merchant at the Pir Badai Mandi outside Islamabad - says that for the first time, he has begun to see India as a source for vegetables in scarce supply.
Boosting bilateral trade further is big on External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Islamabad this weekend, along with liberalising visa procedures.
The two foreign ministers are doing a full review of the composite dialogue so far.
But that's the easy part.
The two sides will also try to narrow the gap on formulations over Kashmir between Islamabad's offer of joint management - which New Delhi rejects - and India's idea of joint consultative committees for the two sides of Kashmir divided by the Line of Control.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's hope of opening traffic - so that it’s possible to breakfast in Amritsar , lunch in Lahore and dinner in Kabul - has some takers already.
"Yes, I want to go there (India), it will be great," says a truck driver Yasin. Though Yasin may say so, he knows there's a long road ahead before that happens.
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