The last round of talks between Taliban representatives and the US lasted more than 12 long days in Doha. There was no breakthrough but both sides at the end of the marathon meeting knew exactly each other’s position on some of the more contentious issues.

In the eternally sour relations between India and Pakistan, voices of sanity have been repeatedly drowned out by the noise of populists pandering to powerful lobbies on both sides of the divide.

The suicide attack on paramilitary troops in Pulwama in south Kashmir was the deadliest in years, with 44 soldiers killed and dozens injured when a terrorist rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a convoy of paramilitary troops.

A long awaited interaction between the Taliban and their Afghan adversaries began in Russia, in a development that might prove to be the harbinger of a more focused and productive engagement, perhaps even an eventual grand reconciliation.