India and Pakistan have evidently decided to turn their backs on their acrimonious past, with Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh and Yousaf Raza Gilani publicly praising one another after an hour-long one-on-one interaction here, and announcing that in their subsequent dialogue they would be even more forthcoming.
Held on the sidelines of the 17th Saarc summit now being held here, the meeting of the two top leaders clearly grabbed public attention. Scores of journalists from India, Pakistan and even non-Saarc countries, including Europe and Japan, milled around the upscale Shangrila resort, the venue of the conversation, for several hours.
The atmosphere appeared to mark a chemistry change from the past. At the Thimphu summit of the Saarc in May 2010, India had loudly complained of a “trust deficit” with Pakistan even as it set in train a process of engagement with its troublesome neighbour.
As the difficult India-Pakistan ties have been seen as an impediment in the coming to fruition of the Saarc vision of regional “cooperative endeavour”, many are hoping that all the right words spoken now might give a visible push to the Saarc agenda. The two Prime Ministers addressed the media immediately after their relatively long session together.
Dr Singh called Mr Gilani “a man of peace”, an impression that he said had strengthened over the two years that he had interacted with the Pakistani leader.
While noting that the dialogue process since Thimphu had “yielded positive results”, the Indian leader pointedly noted that “more needs to be done”.
He would have warmed hearts in Pakistan when he said that the next round of his talks with Mr Gilani would be more open and “result-oriented”. The expression has been a constant in Pakistan’s diplomatic demands on India for some time.
Dr Singh recalled his long-held view that the “destinies of the two countries are closely interdependent”, and said they had lost a lot of time in “accusations and counter-accusations”.
Speaking to the media before Dr Singh, Mr Gilani sought to underline that the two leaders had discussed “all issues of concern, including all core issues”. It is a regular Pakistani complaint that India fights shy of addressing its “core concerns”, topping which is the question of Jammu and Kashmir.
Specifically, the Pakistan leader referred to Kashmir, water, terrorism, the Siachen Glacier and Sir Creek. He also noted that in their talks Dr Singh had been “candid”.
He said the Indian leader had asked him to “put all (his) cards on the table”, and offered to discuss them. He thanked the Indian Prime Minister for supporting Pakistan in the UN Security Council and in helping Pakistan with European Union market access.