Obama: India, Pakistan's enemy should be poverty

President Barack Obama says India and Pakistan's greatest enemy should be poverty, not each other.

He met with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the G-20 meeting in London Thursday, and later told a news conference that he suggested it would "make sense" for the two nuclear-armed neighbors to have "a more effective dialogue."

Obama says they discussed the terrorism emanating from Pakistan, but focused more broadly on how the U.S. and India can cooperate on counterterrorism.
Obama described Singh as a "wise and decent man" who has done a "wonderful job" guiding India on a path of economic growth.

US President Barack Obama called for a dialogue process between India and Pakistan but Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that a “minimum pre-condition” was that Islamabad should not allow its soil to be used to promote terrorism.

Asked after their first substantive meeting, that lasted an hour, whether India was willing to talk with Pakistan on Kashmir, the Prime Minister said: “We are willing to discuss bilaterally all the issues that bedevil the two countries. This cannot proceed if hundreds of people die like they did in the Mumbai attack.”