Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is likely to meet US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Italy, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon indicated on Monday. He also confirmed the possibility of meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir on the sidelines of the NAM summit in mid-July.

When asked about PM-Obama meeting, Menon said, “I am sure they will be meeting, but we will tell you once we have it all sorted out, (with) precise timings and places.”

On the meeting between him and the Pak Foreign secretary, he said, “It is likely to take place at Sharm-al-Sheikh (in Egypt) because I think this will be the first location where we will get a chance to meet.”

On the substance of that meeting, he said, “ We will do what we have been asked to do by our leaders. Pakistan will tell us what they have done, we will tell them our concerns and we will then report to our leaders about where we stand on the issues, which for us is bringing the perpetrators of terrorism against India to justice and dismantling the infrastructure of terrorism in Pakistan, which supports these activities.”

He added that Manmohan Singh and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari would discuss these issues as they had decided upon in Yekaterinburg on June 16. Menon did not specify the date of the meeting but it is likely to take place on July 13 or 14, ahead of the NAM Summit on July 15. Manmohan Singh, who will be attending the Summit, will then meet Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines of the multilateral event.

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