PM set to meet Sharif Sept. 29
The speculation can finally be put at rest with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh slated to meet his Pak counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, on September 29 in New York where both will be to attend the 68th UN General Assembly session.
The meeting will signal a thaw in bilateral relations after the thaw that had set in after the killing of five Indian soldiers by Pakistan Army troops in early August. The meeting has been much awaited after New Delhi rebuffed Islamabad’s efforts to resume the peace dialogue in the wake of the soldiers’ killing.
The meeting between the two PMs will take place on the margins of the UNGA and is expected to take place over breakfast. Both leaders would have addressed the UNGA prior to this meeting with Mr Singh and Mr Sharif scheduled to deliver their speeches on September 27 and 28, respectively. PM Singh will be reaching New York after a bilateral meeting with US president Barack Obama in Washington on September 27. Neither side is raising too many expectations from the meeting of the two PMs though there are hopes that it will be a “good meeting.” However, it is expected that the Pak PM will emphasise the need for the two neighbours to resume the peace dialogue that came to a grinding halt after the beheading of an Indian soldier on the LoC in January this year. The Indian PM, on his part, is expected to reiterate his concerns about terror emanating from Pakistani soil targeting India and the need for Islamabad to deliver on this front. Significantly, both the PMs will be keeping their domestic constituencies in mind while meeting. While Mr Sharif will be hoping to justify the peace overtures he has been making towards India since he became PM, at the back of Dr Singh’s mind will be the impending assembly polls in five states as well as the general elections next year.
The ties soured in the aftermath of this beheading and just as they appeared headed to return to an even keel in August came the killing of five Indian soldiers on August 6.
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