PM turns down Gilani invite
The neighbours met in Seoul, South Korea, after all. But if Pak Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani was hoping that his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh would readily accept his invite to visit Pakistan, it was not to be. Instead, Dr Singh told his Pakistani counterpart that “something solid needs to be done before we can celebrate”.
And Dr Singh’s words, in essence, appear to sum up the state of bilateral ties ever since 26/11 between the two neighbours in the Asian subcontinent. Of two countries struggling to bring their ties back on an even keel after they took a nose-dive and saw the stalling of the peace process in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks.
The two leaders, who were in Seoul for the second Nuclear Security Summit that concluded on Tuesday, met there shortly before going into the plenary hall at the Coex Centre, the venue for the summit.
Pak foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was also in Seoul for the summit, seemed to have views similar to those of the Indian PM. Asked separately about Indo-US relations by an Indian news agency, Ms Khar said that while the need to remove the trust deficit between the two countries is what’s talked about, what’s really needed is to “follow a result-oriented strategy”.
Stating that what’s needed is a “new strategy”, the Pak foreign minister also affirmed that Pakistan is looking forward to the visit of Indian external affairs minister S.M. Krishna to her country in July this year.
Mr Khar was also present during the two PM’s brief but significant conversation.
Sharing the details of his brief encounter with the Pak PM while returning to New Delhi from Seoul, Mr Singh described it as “a good meeting”. He said he thanked PM Gilani for MFN (most favoured nation) status to India.
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