New Delhi, September 12
The possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousaf Raza Gilani on the margins of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York later this month is not ruled out, sources said today.

Manmohan Singh would be heading to New York on September 21 to participate in the UNGA session after a gap of two years. He last went to New York in September 2008, during which he held meetings with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and then US President George Bush when the Indo-US nuclear deal was in the final stages of negotiations.

Apart from addressing the UNGA, the PM is likely to hold bilateral meetings with several world leaders. Indian officials are also exploring the possibility of a meeting between the PM and US President Barack Obama, who also is expected to be in New York around that time in connection with the UNGA,

The visit comes at a time when India is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for a two-year term that began on January 1 this year. It is also being considered significant against the backdrop of the process of UN reforms gathering momentum.

India held the rotating Presidency of the Security Council in August, playing a major role in preventing foreign military intervention in Syria. It also organised a thematic debate on UN peace-keeping operations on August 26.

External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, accompanied by top officials, would be leaving for New York ahead of the PM’s visit and do the ground work for Singh’s bilateral meetings. He also could hold bilateral talks with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar.

If Manmohan Singh meets Gilani, it would be after nearly one-and-a-half-years that the two leaders will hold talks. It was during their last meeting in Thimphu on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit in April last year that the they had asked their foreign ministers to explore ways and means to resume the dialogue process, which was suspended by India following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.

The dialogue process was eventually resumed in February this year following a meeting between the foreign secretaries of the two countries in Thimphu.