Click to play videoNew Delhi: Six months after the Mumbai terror attacks, India and Pakistan are all set to break the ice next week in the Russian city of Yekaterinaburg.
The Indian government on Friday confirmed what CNN-IBN had reported earlier in the week. A meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is set and is on the agenda.
Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said, “Indian and Pakistani premiers will be in the same room, they will be shaking hands obviously, they will talk but beyond that, what kind of structure could evolve is difficult to predict at this stage."
The meeting on foreign soil will give both the leaders the much needed flexibility to chart out a new relationship. In fact, if the Pakistani authorities in the meantime, appeal against the release of alleged LeT leader Hafiz Saeed, the meeting could even lead to a resumption of the suspended composite dialogue down the line.
A nudge from the US may have played a part in the PM doing a policy flip flop as some see it, even within the establishment.
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna sees the meeting as a precursor to a normalizing of ties and a thaw in icy relations between the two neighbouring nations.
Normalising relations with Pakistan is Manmohan Singh's dream and a stated foreign policy priority for his new, more powerful government.
Pakistan is yet to respond in a strong positive manner though.
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