October 1
Describing his meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly as “useful”, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the two leaders had “taken steps towards normalisation of the relationship” between the two countries.

In an interaction with the media on-board his special flight just before his return, Manmohan Singh described ensuring “peace and tranquility on the line of control” as the first step towards normalisation of relations with Pakistan. He stated, “For that we have agreed that the DGMOs of the two sides will meet and work out arrangements. It will take time to find out what can be done and what is agreed upon is implemented.”

About whether he was upset with Nawaz Sharif purportedly calling him a “dehati aurat” before their bilateral meeting in New York, the Prime Minister said, “I have learnt to take all these things in my stride but Nawaz Sharif has denied that he said it.”

On his bilateral summit with US President Barack Obama in Washington DC, Manmohan Singh said “important steps” had been taken in the fields such as defence, civil nuclear co-operation, education and environment. The Prime Minister pointed out that in the areas of defence co-operation India and the US are “trying to move away from the buyer-seller relationship to a relationship based on co-production, co-research and the outcome of the deliberations on defence cooperation is in line with our own thinking. We would like our own domestic industry to get involved in defence production. We would also like foreign direct investment to the extent of 26 per cent to come into defence production.”