US President Barack Obama called for a dialogue process between India and Pakistan but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that a “minimum pre-condition” was that Islamabad should not allow its soil to be used to promote terrorism.

Asked after their first substantive meeting, that lasted an hour, whether India was willing to talk with Pakistan on Kashmir, the Prime Minister said: “We are willing to discuss bilaterally all the issues that bedevil the two countries. This cannot proceed if hundreds of people die like they did in the Mumbai attack.”

Describing their first meeting as one “marked by exceptional warmth and cordiality”, Singh said, “We have a global strategic partnership with the US. We both are agreed to further strengthen our relationship and make it more productive in diverse fields.”

Singh said they discussed international efforts required to deal with terrorism emanating from India’s neighbourhood, adding: “We had a significant convergence of views and approaches in this regard.”

Later at a packed press conference, Obama, describing the Prime Minister as a “wise and decent man” said, “We are extra concerned about terrorism and not simply terrorism emanating from Pakistan.”

Obama said he and Singh discussed how the two could coordinate more broadly to counter terrorism. Advocating greater dialogue between India and Pakistan, Obama said, “In the nuclear age, when the greatest enemy of India and Pakistan should be poverty, it makes more sense to create dialogue between the two.”

At a separate press conference, Singh, whom UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown requested to speak at the banquet dinner on Wednesday night immediately after Obama’s address to the Group of 20 leaders, said that he had thanked Obama for what he had done to make possible the transformation of India-US relations, and to bring to fruition the Indo-US nuclear deal.

... contd.