Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), July 16: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani met here on Thursday 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, 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.
Singh will meet Gilani on Thursday at Hotel Maritim Jolie Ville Golf Resort at Sharm-el Shiekh hoping to get a categoric commitment that the Mumbai terror accused would be quickly brought to justice and Pakistan’s soil will not be used for terror acts against India.
Though the Indian side is entering the talks on a note of caution, it is not pre-judging Pakistan’s intention. The sources said India has taken note of President Asif Ali Zardari’s willingness to discuss the issue of terrorism during his talks with Singh in Russia last month.
New Delhi has also acknowledged that Pakistan has taken “some steps” in this direction. “But what they amount to, we have to see,” they said.
While India has made it clear that Pakistan should take steps to dismantle terror infrastructure and stop terror acts directed against it, New Delhi feels laying down deadlines, markers for this purpose is not pragmatic.
The Indian side feels it is premature at this stage to speculate on resumption of the peace process, stalled since the Mumbai 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.
–PTI