Thimphu, April 28 (Inditop.com) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani here Thursday on the margins of the SAARC summit, an Indian official said Wednesday, ending the suspense over the much anticipated talks between the two South Asian rivals.
Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vishnu Prakash said the two prime ministers would meet on Thursday in the Bhutanese capital after the two sides agreed through diplomatic channels to hold the dialogue.
“It has been agreed through diplomatic channels that the prime ministers of India and Pakistan will hold a bilateral meeting tomorrow at Thimphu,” Prakash told reporters.
There was no official word on the timing and venue of the meeting but Pakistani foreign office sources told IANS that the two leaders would meet at 6.30 p.m. Thursday.
Peace talks between India and Pakistan were stalled after the 2008 Mumbai terror attack that left 166 people dead. India blamed terrorists based in Pakistan for the attack.
This will be the first meeting between the two leaders after their talks at Sharm el-Sheikh in July 2009.
The foreign secretaries of the two countries – Nirupama Rao and Salman Bashir – had met in the Indian capital in February but the talks ended in a stalemate after India insisted that the composite dialogue would resume only after Pakistan prosecutes the terrorist leaders responsible for the Mumbai carnage.
