The EU, through its numerous individual members and multilateral agencies, and Southwest Asia inclusive of Pakistan and Afghanistan, both have maintained a multidimensional relationship, which since September 11 was definitely overshadowed by security-related priorities. Development, governance, poverty reduction, education, gender rights, and assistance in reforming infrastructure found their way within official pronouncements, but frankly speaking it was the pre-eminence of security-related concerns which brought these regions closer together, though in no less ambivalent a way. Despite the salience of security and geopolitical imperatives, the historical, Diasporic, academic, commercial and cultural interfaces have, in recent years, tended to be either overlooked or get de-emphasised on both sides, whereas winning the war, fighting terrorism and neutralizing extremism resounded as a familiar mantra and fait accompli. In one sense, this relationship is almost as old as the EU itself. In 1952, its earliest incarnation initiated its presence in the Indus lands, though most of the West European nations had already established ambassadorial posts in Karachi and Kabul. The earliest phase in this newer relationship was characterized by mutual curiosity in addition to a modicum of assistance in some infrastructure-building areas. Both sides were still in the early processes of their respective redefinition, which again, in a rather curious way, stemmed from post–World War II geopolitical considerations, interests and imperatives. The ideological division of Europe preceded the partition of the subcontinent just by a few years, though a generation down the decades it has successfully overcome that sundering.