Act against terror, Manmohan to tell Zardari

August 2nd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Applauding positive statements from the leaderships of India and Pakistan in the recent past, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that both Dr. Manmohan Singh and President Asif Ali Zardari are trying their best to deescalate the tension which soared after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

July 11th, 2009 ON BOARD AIR INDIA ONE - The 'open' talk by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on the need for Pakistan to curb terrorism against India in front of the media in Russia last month continues to reverberate between both sides. But Manmohan Singh Saturday clarified that he "had no intention to hurt the feelings of President Zardari".

July 3rd, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani would meet Dr. Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the of the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt on July 16, the Pakistan Foreign Office has said.

June 18th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg finally broke the ice seven months after the Mumbai terror attacks, Pakistan's foreign office said Thursday, adding Islamabad wanted the resumption of the sub-continental dialogue process. "Finally the ice has been broken," Foreign Office spokesman Abdul Basit said at his weekly media briefing here.

June 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari will not visit Egypt for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit next month, his spokesman said, meaning that a planned meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will not take place. At the same time, the formulation is not correct to say that Zardari had cancelled the visit as he was avoiding Manmohan Singh in the wake of the Indian prime minister's blunt message during their meeting in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on Tuesday, presidential spokesman Farhatullah Babar told the NDTV news channel.

June 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday revealed that the Indian Government has asked its Pakistani counterpart to take efficient action against the elements responsible for terrorism in India as it is taking against Al Qaeda and Taliban in the tribal areas. Briefing reporters onboard about his meeting with Pakistan President Asaf Ali Zardari while returning from Yeketerinberg, Manmohan Singh said " I explained to him (Zardari) that while Pakistan has taken action against Taliban and Al Qaeda, we have a strong feeling that those elements who are active against in perpetrating terrorists acts in our country they are not being brought to justice".

June 17th, 2009 ON BOARD AIR INDIA ONE - Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's blunt message to Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari within earshot of reporters in Yekaterinburg was an astutely choreographed move aimed at critics back home who might see the meeting as a softening of India's stance. The message was aimed at hawks back home who might be tempted to elevate the meeting into a resumption of the (sub-continental) dialogue and use it to portray it as a sign of the government's weakness, said an official source, who did not want to be named.

June 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - Pakistan has termed the meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Russia as positive but said no conditions should be laid down for resuming the sub-continental dialogue that New Delhi suspended in the wake of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. We are of the viewpoint that the negotiations should not be conditional as we cannot understand each other without negotiations so we expect to make dialogue result oriented and irreversible," Foreign Office spokesperson Abdul Basit told a private TV channel Wednesday.

June 17th, 2009 ON BOARD AIR INDIA ONE - India would review Pakistan's actions against anti-India terror outfits before deciding on resuming the composite dialogue mid-July, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Wednesday, a day after he met Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in Russia. The prime minister said he would wait for the outcome of the talks between the foreign secretaries of the two countries, who are expected to meet within a month, before taking a decision on resuming the composite dialogue that stalled after the Mumbai terror attacks nearly seven months ago.

June 17th, 2009 ON BOARD AIR INDIA ONE - With India putting Pakistan on the defensive over cross-border terrorism, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said President Asif Ali Zardari did not raise the Kashmir issue during his discussions with him in Russia. "No discussion on Kashmir took place.

June 17th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The Pakistani media Wednesday prominently featured on their front pages the meeting between President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg but refrained from commenting editorially. The lack of editorials was not surprising given that Pakistani papers normally comment on an event two days after it occurs.

June 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The United States has welcomed as "encouraging" a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari in the aftermath of the November Mumbai attacks saying the two countries need to continue their dialogue. "A resumption of such high-level engagement in the aftermath of the November Mumbai attacks is encouraging," State Department Spokesman, Ian Kelly told reporters Tuesday when asked to comment on the two leaders' meeting on the sidelines of the Yekaterinburg summit.

June 16th, 2009 YEKATERINBURG - In their first meeting since the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday asked Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to take "strong and credible action" against anti-India terrorist outfits in his country and create the "right atmosphere" for the resumption of the stalled bilateral dialogue. Manmohan Singh and Zardari met in the Silver Room of Hotel Hyatt Regency in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, the industrial town located nearly 1,400 km from Moscow, barely minutes after the SCO summit they attended as observers.

May 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday rang up Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to congratulate him on his Congress party's victory in the elections. This was the first telephonic conversation between the two leaders since they last spoke over five months ago - a few days after the Nov 26, 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai that froze bilateral dialogue between the two countries.

May 6th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke called on President Asif Ali Zardari here on Wednesday. Zardari, Clinton and Holbrooke discussed the war on terror in a breakfast meeting that lasted for about an hour.