The meeting comes against the backdrop of India's growing concern over terror attacks emanating from Pakistan.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold his first one-on-one meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in New York this evening.
The meeting comes against the backdrop of India's growing concern over terror attacks emanating from Pakistan and Prime Minister's very tough talk in the UN General Assembly where Dr Singh asked Pakistan to shut down "terrorist machinery" on its soil.
"State-sponsored cross-border terrorism is of particular concern to India, also on account of the fact that the epicentre of terrorism in our region is located in our neighbourhood in Pakistan. There can be no tolerance for states sheltering, arming, training or financing terrorists. Nor can they absolve themselves of the responsibility to prevent their territories from being used to launch acts of terrorism," he said. (
Read full text of Dr Singh's speech)
Dr Singh also virtually rejected Mr Sharif's demand for resolution of the Kashmir issue on the basis of UN Security Council resolutions, saying India favoured settlement of all issues on the basis of the Simla Agreement.
"India is committed sincerely in resolving all issues with Pakistan, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, through bilateral dialogue on the basis of Simla Agreement," Dr Singh said in his address to the UN General Assembly. India considers the UN resolutions as outdated.
The India-Pakistan dialogue process was put on hold after an Indian soldier was beheaded along the Line of Control (LoC) in January this year. Ties hit a new low when five more soldiers were killed by Pakistani troops along the LoC last month.
The terror attacks near Jammu on Thursday threatened to derail the New York meeting, with main Opposition BJP demanding that PM call off his meeting with Sharif.
But PM decided to go ahead with the meeting, saying such attacks will not succeed in derailing the dialogue process.
"If something happens that is adverse to our interests, something happens that is hurtful we have to take that into account. The very purpose of talks with Pakistan is to reverse the situation. I don't think anybody has come up with an alternative strategy on how they think we will be able to succeed in what we are trying to do which is essentially to ensure that our point of view prevails and our people remain safe and secure," External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said.
Expectations from the high-profile meeting will be toned down, as the Prime Minister himself put it in the media briefing after his talks with US President Barack Obama, "Given the terror arm which is still active in our subcontinent".