简体中文
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday held talks with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on a five-point agenda, including cross-border terrorism, a day after he was sworn into office in presence of leaders of all seven South Asian nations as well as Mauritius.
During the 40-minute meeting in the Indian capital, Modi raised with Sharif issues like cross-border terrorism, Mumbai terror attacks trial and attack on the Indian consulate in the Afghan city of Herat, sources said.
"Modi told Sharif that terror attacks must stop. The Indian Prime Minister also raised the issue of the slow pace of trial in Pakistan of those accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai massacre in which over 170 people were killed by 10 Pakistani militants," the sources said.
The Indian prime minister asked the Pakistani prime minister as to why the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks were not brought to justice, the sources said, adding that the two leaders also discussed the attack on the Indian consulate at Herat in Afghanistan last Friday.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who also attended Modi's inauguration, has blamed Pakistan-based banned terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba for the terror attack on the Indian consulate in Herat.
"Modi and Sharif also discussed about bolstering trade ties and energy security," the sources said, adding that the country's new External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was also with Modi during his bilateral interactions with the Pakistani prime minister.
After his meeting with Modi, Sharif visited Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was the Indian prime minister when he last came to India. "We should remove fears, mistrust and misgivings about each other. I want to pick up the broken threads from where Mr. Vajpayee and I left off in 1999," he told the media.
Sharif had Monday attended Modi's swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace, the first by the prime minister of one country to witness the inauguration of his counterpart in the other since India and Pakistan got independence from Britain in 1947.
India and Pakistan have fought at least three major wars in the past 60 years over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
Though both the countries have been holding bilateral talks to resolve the decades-long dispute, India's relations with Pakistan soured after the Mumbai terror attacks. Relations slightly improved under Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh, but there have been regular skirmishes on international border.
Experts say that the talks between Modi and Sharif are "ice- breaking" as the Indian prime minister wants to forge a strong relationship with neighboring Pakistan, but not at all by compromising on issues like terror on which he and his Bharatiya Janata Party have a hardline stance.
"Modi led his party to a landslide victory in the general elections, which gave him the mandate to reach out to Pakistan. It 's now up to Pakistan to reciprocate India's gesture," Delhi-based political analyst Prof Ajay Sharma said.
