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Indian home minister hails Modi for engaging with Pakistan in Russia

Xinhua, July 10, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his " statesman like approach" in engaging with Islamabad diplomatically and accepting his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif's invitation to visit that country next year.

The home minister congratulated Modi in a series of tweets, barely a couple of hours after India and Pakistan issued a joint statement following a bilateral meeting between the two prime ministers on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization meet in the Russian city of Ufa.

"India-Pak joint statement at Ufa shows signs of positive movement. The engagement at different levels will hopefully open new possibilities. Welcome the decision to expedite the trial pertaining to 2008 Mumbai attack including additional information like providing voice samples," Singh tweeted.

He added: "The joint statement is a step forward towards normalizing bilateral relations, however the future outcome will be keenly watched. I congratulate the Prime Minister Shri @ NarendraModi for his statesman like approach and engaging Pakistan on diplomatic level."

The Indian prime minister and his Pakistani counterpart met earlier in the day and decided to hold military-to-military contact between the two countries while Modi accepted Sharif's invitation to his first-ever visit to Pakistan for the summit of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation in 2016.

According to the joint statement, early meetings between the chiefs of India's Border Security Force and Pakistani Rangers will he held and the national security advisers of the two countries will meet to "discuss all issues connected to terror."

India and Pakistan have also decided to find ways of accelerating the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks trial, Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told the media. Endi