Six months after the Mumbai terror attacks put the peace process between India and Pakistan on “pause”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari today directed their Foreign Secretaries to meet before the NAM summit in Egypt, where the two leaders are likely to meet again.

The summit of Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) countries will take place mid-July in Sharm-el-Sheikh in Egypt, and indications are the FS-level meeting is likely to be held in the last week of June or early July.

Manmohan Singh on Tuesday told President Zardari to take action to stop terrorism against India emanating from his country’s soil. Setting the tone for the meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit, Singh, shaking hands with Zardari, bluntly told him in front of television cameras that “my mandate is to tell you that Pakistan territory should not be used for terrorism against India.”

An embarrassed Zardari told the Prime Minister to let “them (media) go” out of the room before they could have a detailed discussion.

The decision to go ahead with Foreign Secretary-level talks means a slow and gradual process of resuming dialogue has begun. The move sends out a signal to the US that New Delhi has made the first incremental step towards dialogue with Islamabad and is not an obstructionist. The US has been pushing for resumption of dialogue, although Undersecretary of State (political affairs) William Burns had said last week that the “pace, scope and character” of the talks have to be decided by India and Pakistan.

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