Manmohan Singh to Gilani: I need a solid reason to visit

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The neighbours met in Seoul, South Korea after all. But if Pak Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was hoping that his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh would readily accept his invite to visit Pakistan, it was not to be.

Instead, Mr Singh told his Pakistani counterpart that “something solid needs to be done before we can celebrate”.

And Mr 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 a peace process stall 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 shortly before going into the plenary hall at the Coex Centre, the venue for the Summit.

Pakistan foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar echoed the Indian PM, saying 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'.