NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered a blunt warning to old adversary Pakistan on his first day in the job on Tuesday, telling his counterpart in a rare meeting that Islamabad must prevent militants on its territory from attacking India.
Despite the directness of his message, both sides said Modi’s meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New Delhi was cordial and they agreed to try to restart peace talks between the nuclear-armed rivals.
They also agreed to pursue normalising trade ties, which have been held hostage to distrust between their countries after fighting three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
Modi, 63, invited Sharif and several other South Asian leaders for his swearing-in ceremony on Monday. Unprecedented in India’s history, the invitations were seen as a reflection of Modi’s eagerness to play a prominent role on the global stage following a stunning election victory for his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
After Tuesday’s 50-minute meeting between Modi and Sharif, India said the new prime minister had underlined “concerns relating to terrorism”.
“It was conveyed that Pakistan must abide by its commitment to prevent its territory and territory under its control from being used for terrorism against India,” Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh told a news conference.
Modi also pressed for speedy progress of trials in Pakistan of people accused of masterminding a 2008 commando-style attack on the city of Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.
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