For me to meet Nawaz, Islamabad has to act: PM Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that Islamabad has to create the right atmosphere for his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif even as officials of the two countries are preparing the ground for a possible engagement in New York later in September.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that Islamabad has to create the right atmosphere for his meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif even as officials of the two countries are preparing the ground for a possible engagement in New York later in September.

Manmohan Singh was talking to journalists while returning from the G20 summit in St. Petersburg.

Ex-diplomat SK Lambah and former Pakistani foreign secretary Shahryar Khan, the pointsmen for the India-Pakistan back-channel diplomacy, met last week to ease tensions between the two sides.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid is also to meet Sartaj Aziz, Nawaz Sharif's foreign policy adviser, in Kyrgyzstan on September 13 when the two sides will try to firm up a meeting between their prime ministers in New York around September-end.

Khurshid and Aziz will meet on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) meet in Bishkek to try and schedule a meeting between Manmohan Singh and Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York.