'Positive' Talks between Indian and Pakistani PMs

The meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani lasted for over an hour. Both India and Pakistan have described the talks as positive.

Addressing a press briefing Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said the two leaders agreed that relations between their countries should be normalized and that their cooperation was vital for the people of South Asia.

Peace talks between India and Pakistan stalled following the Mumbai attacks in 2008 after New Delhi blamed the atrocity on a Pakistan-based militant group.

Concerns over terrorism

According to Rao, Singh expressed India's concerns about terrorism, increasing infiltration of India's border and slow progress at the trial in Pakistan of the perpetrators of the 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai.

She said the Pakistani premier told Singh that Islamabad was making efforts to bring the trial to a speedy conclusion and that Pakistan would not allow its territory to be used for terrorist activity against India.

Foreign ministerial talks

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who held a separate press conference, also hailed the latest meeting between the two PMs.

"The meeting has changed the climate between India and Pakistan," Qureshi said.

He said the Foreign Ministers of the two countries had been given a mandate to hold talks of substance, though he did not say when the two foreign ministers would meet.

He also told reporters that the interior ministers of the SAARC countries would visit Pakistan on June 26. They would discuss ways to combat terrorism, extremism and drug trafficking in the region.

du/dpa/ AFP/ PTI
Editor: Grahame Lucas