Sharm el-Shiekh, Egypt: As the hour of talks draws near, signs from Egypt are mixed; there were several meetings between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan on Wednesday.
The talks seem deadlocked over a basic issue - Pakistan wants to resume the eight-point composite dialogue process that has been stalled since the Mumbai attacks while India says there's no point talking about anything but terrorism for the moment.
On the sidelines of NAM summit, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon met his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir two-three times on Wednesday in Egypt's resort town of Sharm el-Shiekh. Menon said that he is still talking to Pakistani side on what should be the agenda on Thursday.
Menon also held informal meeting with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani.
"You will know tomorrow whether there will be a joint statement between the two PMs," said Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary, India.
The foreign secretary said that he had a good detailed discussion with the Pakistan Foreign Secretary and Pakistan listed the actions it has taken against terrorism.
The top Indian diplomat admitted that we do have difficult issues to address with Pakistan but our consistent approach is to solve all issues through dialogue.
"We can't keep repeating the same dialogue formula without factoring in reality," said Shivshankar Menon.
Menon said that Hafiz Saeed did come up in the talks and that India is looking for clarity on the Saeed issue from Pakistan. He added that we cannot judge if Pakistan's dossier on Mumbai attacks is satisfactory.
India also said that issue of fugitives like Dawood Ibrahim did come up in the talks.