Thaindian News

Mohali, March 30 (IANS) After the cricket, the talks. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani are to meet Wednesday evening for talks at the Punjab Cricket Association Stadium as the Pakistani side chase India’s score of 260 in the World Cup semifinal.

Though no formal talks are scheduled to be held between the prime ministers, both leaders are likely to discuss the future of bilateral talks, sources said here.

The leaders arrived in the morning to watch the semifinal clash between India and Pakistan of the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Both leaders will hold talks just before their dinner at the PCA stadium complex around 7.30 p.m.

“There was a stalemate in the bilateral talks since the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack. This is the first time that both leaders are meeting in one of their own countries. The ice has been broken through the cricket match, and there is a future to look at,” a source said here.

A conference room has been kept on standby at the PCA Clubhouse by the authorities for discussions between the two leaders.

After watching the game for some time, both prime ministers left the PCA Stadium for Chandigarh. While Manmohan Singh went to the Punjab Raj Bhavan, Gilani headed for Hotel Taj.

It is the third meeting between the two leaders in three years, but for the first time they are meeting is one of their own countries, rather than in a third nation on the sidelines of a multilateral summit.

The last time the two prime ministers met to try and resolve the fraught relationship was in April 2010 in the Bhutanese capital of Thimphu on the sidelines of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit.

Before that, the two met on July 16, 2009, at the Egyptian resort town of Sharm-el-Sheikh on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit. This was five months after the November 2008 Mumbai terror attack.

Gilani arrived here from Islamabad to watch the match at the invitation of Manmohan Singh.