Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks exclusively to NDTV ahead of his meeting with PM Manmohan Singh on Sunday
With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that the "epicentre of terrorism remains focused in Pakistan", the stage has been set for a crucial, and possibly tense, meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
At The Barclay hotel in New York, Mr Sharif was aware of the high stakes. He has taken on the Pakistani army, publicly asserting that it is the prime minister of the country and not the Army Chief who is the boss. Not surprisingly, he was cautious while talking exclusively to us in New York.
"Manmohan Singh is a good man and I am looking forward to my first meeting with him," said Mr Sharif to me, expressing hope that Dr Singh would accept his invitation this time to visit Pakistan.
"I will renew my invite to him. His visit is long overdue and I hope he will come and see his native village", he said.
Asked about the shadow of the terror attacks in Jammu over the talks, the Pakistani PM told NDTV, "I condemn the attack in the strongest words. This is a very sad incident and we should work hard to avoid such incidents from repeating."
Pressed to speak on the increased tensions along the Line of Control (LoC) over the last two months, including the killing of five Indian soldiers in August, Mr Sharif said, "We will propose the setting up of a joint mechanism to monitor tensions along the LoC. We are open to an independent investigation, even one by the UN. If this is not acceptable to India, we can also look at calling a separate meeting of the two foreign secretaries and the DGMOs (Director Generals of Military Operations)."
Calling for an end to a nuclear arms race in South Asia, he said, "It's time for us to stop blaming each other. And why keep on wasting money on buying F16s in a competitive arms race instead of spending on development?"
Mr Sharif laughed out loud when asked to describe whether his mood was optimistic, pessimistic or pragmatic. "I will only say I am meeting Manmohan Singh for the first time and I want to repair the threads broken in 1999."