Asia-Pacific

Indian, Pakistani PMs hold direct talks

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-29 19:58

THIMPHU - Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani met Thursday afternoon on the sideline of the 16th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).

However, no concrete agenda has been announced by either side though the hope of this talk is to discuss a wide range of issues to break the ice between two countries since "Mumbai terror attack ".

Addressing the press meet here, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Quereshi said that the meeting held in Bhutan House was comprehensive, cordial and friendly. According to him, the meeting lasted for one and half hour.

"After the brief meeting with Pakistani and Indian delegation, Singh and Gilani had one-on-one meeting.

"All issues that have been thrown into the press were discussed during the meeting," said Quereshi. After the PMs' one-on-one meeting between duo Prime Ministers, Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries of two countries joined it.

During the meeting, both Prime Ministers concluded that the dialogue is the only way forward and they agreed to resume dialogue process that was left untouched since Sharm el-Sheikh talk.

According to Quereshi, Foreign Ministers and Foreign Secretaries of the two countries have been given the responsibilities to work out on engagements to begin as soon as possible and as frequently as possible.

Peace talks between India and Pakistan were stalled after the "Mumbai terror attack" that left 166 people dead in 2008.

This is the first meeting between the leaders of two countries after their talks at Sharm el-Sheikh in July, 2009 in Egypt.

During the Sharm el-Sheikh talk, two countries made an agreement that "action on terror should not be linked to the composite dialogue process and these should not be bracketed" and that "terrorism is the main threat to both countries".