Aaj English TV

Friday, March 29, 2024  
18 Ramadan 1445  

Pakistan and India agree to enhance interaction at all levels

The prime ministers of India and Pakistan met Thursday on the sidelines of a summit of South Asian leaders in the Maldives, to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries.

India's Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani shook hands in front of the media before beginning a short session of talks at a luxury island resort in the Indian Ocean.

Their foreign ministers raised expectations at the summit by agreeing on Wednesday that the "trust deficit" between the two nuclear-armed rivals had narrowed and that the environment had "improved considerably."

Both ministers acknowledged the difficult work to do, not least tackling the vexed subject of Kashmir and Pakistan-based extremism, but the sense of optimism has raised morale at a meeting perennially overshadowed by tension.

In 2008, the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit was soured by the bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul just weeks earlier which India blamed on "elements" in Pakistan.

"The trust deficit that typically existed between the two countries for many, many years has been reduced to a large order," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said when she arrived in the Maldives.

But she cautioned: "We have many, many more miles to move ahead."

The two prime ministers last met in March when Gilani accepted Singh's invitation to watch the India-Pakistan cricket World Cup semi-final. Their previous formal talks were at the April 2010 SAARC summit in Bhutan.

The process remains tentative with only incremental progress on less contentious issues such as trade.

Last week, Pakistan's cabinet announced it had approved a proposal giving India the status of "most favoured nation" but there has been confusion since about when it will be implemented.

Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, who is taking over the leadership of SAARC, said he wanted India and Pakistan to shed their differences and help rejuvenate the body, which is seen by critics as an ineffectual talking shop.

His office said he was keen that the two rivals resolve their issues and help release the potential of a grouping that accounts for a fifth of humanity in one of the world's poorest regions.

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