Havana: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf are meeting on the sidelines of the NAM Summit in Havana on Saturday.
The Prime Minister will firmly convey to the General, India's concerns over continuing cross-border terrorism.
Manmohan Singh has said India will not engage in a war of words with Pakistan and he is hopeful of a joint statement after the meeting.
President Musharraf also sounded optimistic about his meeting with Manmohan Singh.
"We expect to make substantial progress with the meeting so that we progress towards peace and harmony," the General said.
According to senior Indian officials, the Prime Minister would do some plain-speaking at the crucial meeting and tell General Musharraf in unequivocal terms that it would be difficult for New Delhi to resume the peace process if Pakistan did not stop promoting cross-border terrorism.
This will be the first meeting between the two leaders after the recent spurt in terrorist activities in India, due to which the dialogue process had to be stalled in July.
The serial blasts in Mumbai on July 11 forced India to put on hold the Foreign Secretary-level talks, which were to be held in the same month in New Delhi.
The officials accompanying the Prime Minister did not rule out the possibility of the resumption of the dialogue process if the meeting between the two leaders goes off well.
Both Dr Singh and General Musharraf have made right noises on the eve of the much-awaited meeting, that will determine the direction of the relationship between the two South Asian neighbours.
The Prime Minister has clearly indicated that he favoured interaction with the Pakistani leadership on the ground that India had to deal with whoever was in power in the neighbouring country.
Reflecting his commitment to normalisation of relations with Pakistan, he had recently shot down the BJP's demand that he should not meet Musharraf until Pakistan brought a complete end to terrorist activities being sponsored from across the border.
Talking to journalists accompanying him on his nine-day trip to Brazil and Cuba on Thursday, the Prime Minister said he did not want to indulge in a 'public discussion' with the Pakistan President ahead of their meeting.
(With inputs from UNI)
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