A meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ended Thursday, and the meeting seemed to be all for show. No substantial progress was made toward improving relations between the two nations. The 90-minute meeting, on the sidelines of a regional forum in Bhutan, was the first between the leaders of the two nuclear powers in nine months. New Delhi had suspended formal peace talks in November 2008 after Pakistan-based Islamist militants attacked Mumbai, India's financial capital, killing more than 160 people.
India has made sorting out the details of Pakistan's involvement in the attacks in Mumbai a prerequisite for resuming serious peace talks. Pakistan has made seven arrests regardiung the attacks. However, it it is still issues of terrorism that are holding back progress. Both parties did acknowledge a trust deficit but it seems that India will not improve policy until justice has been done to the perpatrators of the Mumbia attacks.
The two leaders agreed to instruct their foreign secretaries to find a way out of the impasse, but they gave no time frame for a meeting. The foreign secretaries last met in February this year, which marked a formal resumption of the peace talks. That meeting ended with gestures of friendship but no solid progress toward normalization of relations.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment