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| Manmohan, Geelani thaw in Egypt | | |
Agencies
SHARM- el-SHEIKH, EGYPT: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani met here today amid India’s hope of getting a categoric commitment from him that Islamabad would act against those behind the Mumbai attacks and dismantle terror infrastructure.
Meeting on the sidelines of the 15th NAM Summit in this Egyptian Red Sea resort city, Singh and Gilani are understood to have assessed what actions Islamabad has taken to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 attacks.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi were present during the Singh-Gilani meeting. National Security Adviser M K Narayanan also attended the meeting.
As a precursor to the second top-level meeting between India and Pakistan since the Mumbai attacks, Foreign Secretaries of the two countries had several rounds of discussions, with New Delhi wanting to know about the steps taken by Islamabad.
After the meetings with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said the relations are under stress and there are some "difficult" issues still remaining. He said Islamabad needs to take credible action to bring the perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks to justice.
"There is no way but dialogue to deal with issues either to take the relations forward or to address issues that divide us," Menon said, however, adding that "we have had difficult issues in the past and we still have difficult issues to address".
At the start of their meeting, Singh and Gilani warmly shook hands and posed for photographs. Foreign Secretaries of the two countries were also present.
Singh did not make any comment on being asked whether he was hopeful of the talks with Gilani.
Prime Minister Singh had yesterday made a strong pitch for dismantling of terror infrastructure and asked countries not to provide safe havens for terrorists.
"In recent years, terrorist groups have become more sophisticated, more organised and more daring. Terrorists and those who aid and abet them must be brought to justice," he said, addressing the plenary session of the two-day Summit of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement(NAM), where his Pakistani counterpart was also present.
The discussions between the two top leaders are also believed to have covered the flip-flop in Pakistan over the detention and release of JuD chief Hafiz Mohd Saeed, a key accused in the Mumbai terror attacks.
In his address to the NAM Summit, Gilani had said that there was recently forward movement in Pakistan’s relations with India and Islamabad hoped to sustain the momentum and move towards a comprehensive engagement.
Islamabad has been pushing for resumption of the composite dialogue process stalled since the Mumbai terror strikes in November last year.
After their meeting, Singh and Gilani are expected to come out with a joint statement or address a joint media briefing.
The meeting between Singh and Gilani comes six days after Pakistan handed over a fresh dossier on its probe into the Mumbai terror attacks to India.
Singh last month met President Asif Ali Zardari on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s summit in Russia when he bluntly told the Pakistani leader to take action to stop terrorism against India emanating from his country’s soil
The June 16 Singh-Zardari meeting was the first top-level contact between the two countries since the Mumbai terror attacks in November.
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