Manmohan, Gilani discuss wide-ranging bilateral issues

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cricket diplomacy seems to have borne fruit as his talks with his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani at Mohali today were described as very "positive" and "encouraging".

Mr Gilani had been invited by Dr Singh to watch the World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan at the Punjab town today.

On the sidelines of the match, the two leaders held "very wide- ranging" talks, Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao told reporters in Chandigarh after the dinner hosted by the Prime Minister in honour of Mr Gilani and his delegation.

"Just like we have been talking about the Thimphu spirit after the two leaders met in the Bhutanese capital last year and decided to carry forward the dialogue process, we can now speak of a Mohali spirit," she said.

Though no agenda had been set for the meeting, sources in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had said in the capital yesterday that there could be a one-to-one meeting between the two leaders and anything concerning the bilateral relations between the two countries could be discussed.

Mr Gilani had arrived in Chandigarh in the morning at the head of a large delegation. He was joined by Dr Singh in the afternoon. The two leaders watched the match together for a few hours and then withdrew to hold talks.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at a dinner hosted by him in honour of his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani during the India-Pakistan World Cup semi-final at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium in Mohali on March 30, 2011.

The two countries are trying to resume the dialogue process and a meeting between their Foreign Ministers is scheduled for July.

India had suspended the composite dialogue process with Pakistan after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.  

In the last two years, the two Prime Ministers have met twice on the sidelines of international and regional meetings. They had a meeting at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt in 2009 and again in Thimphu in April last year.

Talks between the Home Secretaries of the two countries that marked the formal resumption of dialogue between the two sides after a gap of over two years, ended on a positive note here yesterday.

NNN