Thus reports Reuters:

Pakistan and Afghanistan agreed on Tuesday to establish contacts jointly with Taliban militants through tribal leaders after two days of talks over how to end bloodshed in both countries.

Violence has intensified in Afghanistan and Pakistan in recent months, raising fears for the prospects of both countries at the heart of the U.S.-led global campaign against militancy.

The violence has strained ties between the neighboring U.S. allies, with Afghanistan complaining Pakistan has not done enough to stop Taliban infiltrating from sanctuaries in its northwestern ethnic Pashtun lands.

Pashtun tribal elders and politicians from the two countries met at a so-called jirgagai, or mini-jirga, in Islamabad to follow up on a grand assembly in Kabul last year in which delegates called for talks with the Taliban.

This time, they said they would form teams to open contacts with the hardline Islamist militants.

“We agreed that contacts should be established with the opposition in both sides … through jirgagai,” former Afghan foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who led his side in the talks, told a news conference.

Asked whether opposition groups included the Taliban, Owais Ahmed Ghani, governor of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, said: “Yes, it includes all those who are involved in the conflict”.

This could potentially be a tremendous step forward for the entire region. Pakistan has been a major player in Afghanistan for decades. For years, they supported the Taliban, Al Qaeda and other extremists, believing they could be used as a weapon against Pakistan’s main enemy, India.

Over time, however, these extremists have proved to pose a threat to more than India and the West, but also to Pakistan itself. Pakistan is now engaged in a massive war in its own tribal region against said militants, for they have taken over the entire region and are unwilling to give surrender the region to Islamabad.

At the same time that militants are fighting the Pakistani army, their colleagues cross the border into Afghanistan where they fight against the Afghan government and Western troops in the country.

If Pakistan would finally get its act together and help the Afghan government take on the Taliban and Al Qaeda, these extremist groups would suffer a major setback and be considerably weakened.