THE Economic Cooperation Organisation is a bloc of countries with great trading potential, but far too many hurdles in the way of realising that promise. At least on one count, a positive signal has been sent. Islamabad hosted, smoothly and without incident, a reasonably high-profile regional summit attended by heads of state and government. The security situation in the country has clearly deteriorated to the point that a military-led, national operation has been necessitated, but in the long war against terrorism, the state is demonstrating that it can establish pockets of relative normality and periods of calm. An incident-free PSL cricket final in Lahore may add to the sense that Pakistan is turning a corner and able to deliver on its regional and international hosting responsibilities.

Where a great deal of work still remains to be done is on the core agenda of the ECO itself trade. The decision by Afghanistan to downgrade its participation and send only its ambassador to Pakistan to both the Council of Ministers meeting and the final summit is a regrettable decision. The grievances of Kabul regarding Pakistan are well known, but the ECO is a regional gathering and Pakistan was only the host. Indeed, on a day that Kabul was once again attacked by the Afghan Taliban, the absence of President Ashraf Ghani, even his foreign minister, from the Islamabad summit sent a signal that the Afghan government is in a mood to play spoiler rather than seek cooperative solutions. As with the decision by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to skip, and thereby scuttle, a Saarc summit in Islamabad last year, the elevation of bilateral complaints and disputes over and above regional forums of cooperation only serve to signal displeasure and achieve little else. Indeed, the very presence of an array of international leaders in Islamabad suggests that some neighbouring countries` hopes to isolate Pakistan will not go very far. The Afghan leadership should have been more courageous and forwarding-thinking in its approach to the ECO.

For Pakistan, too, the ECO summit was a missed opportunity.

Hosting a regional trade summit for an organisation in which Afghanistan and Pakistan sit near the very centre only days af ter Pakistan slammed shut its borders with Afghanistan is entirely the wrong message to send. Pakistan has legitimate security concerns and Pak-Afghan border management is a vexing problem that will require years of trust-building to resolve. But the road to dispute resolution does not pass through closed borders and the targeting of refugee and migrant populations. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been consistent in his message of regional peaceful coexistence, connectivity and trade. The ECO summit may eventually become a small step towards the realisation of an overarching regional vision.

But fair and just solutions are reciprocal; meaningful action must backup the talk oftrade andpeace.