BEIJING: Prime minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, who met on the sidelines of the Asem summit in Beijing on Friday, agreed to make the joint anti-terror mechanism signed by the two countries on September 16, 2006 a success.
India is clearly unhappy with the implementation, or the lack of it, of the mechanism, and has been repeatedly raising the issue with Pakistan, especially after the bombing on the Indian mission in Kabul.
Manmohan had also raised the issue in his earlier meeting with Gilani in Sri Lanka in August and once again with Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari in New York last month.
In his brief interaction with Gilani, Manmohan reportedly once again leaned on Pakistan to begin implementing the mechanism. “I have been assured that Pakistan is committed to working with us to control terror,” he said after the meeting.
“We are sailing in the same boat and we condemn terrorism. Both India and Pakistan are poor and we have to work together on this,” Gilani said.
The leaders also expressed satisfaction at the opening of the trade route across the line of control and the visa regime between the two countries.
j_ansari@dnaindia.net
