PRESIDENT Asif Ali Zardari's visit to Afghanistan has raised hopes of improvement of ties between the two countries following the expression of friendly sentiments towards Pakistan by his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai, who talked of a new relationship emerging between the two. The joint declaration underscored the need to develop a common strategy to combat terrorism, facilitating international efforts to fight the menace. The two leaders' commitment to develop an energy corridor in the region must be welcomed. The corridor would have oil and gas pipelines to benefit regional nations. At present, projects like the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline and several others are lying in cold storage because of the prevailing security situation and lack of cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistan because of differences on the conduct of the war on terror. The corridor would prove to be a landmark in the development and progress of those countries that are deficient in the energy resource. It is sincerely hoped that both Pakistan and Afghanistan would work hard to forge cooperation not only in the fight against terrorism but also in the various other spheres that affect the two countries with contiguous boundaries and ties of common faith and ethnicity.