Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh toned down expectations for his planned meeting with Premier Nawaz Sharif this weekend at the UN, saying Pakistan remained an “epicenter of terrorism.”
Singh, making what will likely be a farewell visit to the White House after a decade in power, told President Barack Obama that India still faced “difficulties” because of the activities of its neighbor and bitter rival.
Singh and Sharif are expected to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Saturday, as they reach for better relations despite heightened cross border tensions.
“I look forward to the meeting with (premier) Nawaz Sharif even though the expectations have to be toned down given the terror arm which is still active in our subcontinent,” Sharif told reporters in the Oval Office.
Singh told Obama that India was facing difficulties because the “epicenter of terrorist activity remains focused in Pakistan.”
India has blamed militant groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and even elements of the Pakistani state for attacks on its soil, including the assault in a luxury hotel on Mumbai nearly five years ago which killed 166 people.
Deadly skirmishes across the de facto border in divided Kashmir meanwhile have jeopardised the atmospherics for the meeting in New York, which would come months after peace talks again stalled between the two neighbors.
