Addu: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on Thursday met his Indian
counterpart Manmohan Singh here to give a push to normalisation of
bilateral relations marked by "shrinking" trust deficit.
The
meeting on the sidelines of the 17th SAARC summit comes a week after
Pakistan took a path-breaking decision to confer MFN status to India 16
years after it got a similar treatment from New Delhi and the return of
the Indian Air Force’s helicopter which had strayed into Azad Kashmir
across the LoC last month.
Speaking to journalists after
meeting, PM Gilani spoke first and said, "We had very good meeting. We
are moving in a positive direction ahead." Mr Gilani thanked Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh for supporting Pakistan in the United Nations
Security Council for a non-permanent seat.
“We have positive interaction with each other and discussed all matters including issue of Jammu and Kashmir”, Gillani said.
India
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh complimented his counterpart, saying that
he has always believed Gilani is a man of peace, and that belief has
been strengthened in the last three years. He said he hopes that as
dialogue continues, he hopes that all outstanding issues between India
and Pakistan will be discussed and eventually resolved.
Sounding
positive signals, Manmohan Singh said the next round of talks should be
"far more productive" and bring the two countries closer to each other.
Raising the issue of terrorism, the Prime Minister told Gilani that it is imperative to bring 26/11 perpetrators to justice.
In
order to look forward in Indo-Pak peace process Dr Singh said the era
of accusation and counter accusation should be left behind.
The
two prime ministers met in a beach cottage in Shangrilla resort along
the Indian Ocean and discussed a whole range of issues, including the
need for Islamabad to take action against the 26/11 perpetrators and
build on the recent Pakistani decision to grant the MFN status to India.
Before the meeting, the two prime ministers shook hands and
posed for photos. When the photographers pressed for a hand shake again
Gilani responded "once more" and the two leaders shook again for the
shutterbox.
This was followed by a brief delegation level talks after which the two leaders met separately.
The
delegation members included external affairs minister S M Krishna,
national security adviser Shivshankar Menon and foreign secretary Ranjan
Mathai.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai said that
Indian PM Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza
Gilani were of the view that the liberalised visa regime which is being
negotiated should be put in place at the earliest. Online
