NEW DELHI, July 10. /TASS/. The agreements reached at negotiations between India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Pakistani counterpart Navaz Sharif on the sidelines of the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Ufa will favour improvement of the bilateral relations, India’s Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh said on Friday, adding contacts between two countries will open new opportunities and the reached agreements are a step forward towards bringing the relations to normal.

The interior minister welcomed the decision of the prime ministers to speed up investigation into the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in 2008.

India’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Modi and Sharif agreed the countries would cooperate to extirpate terrorism in South Asia. The politicians condemned terrorism in its all forms and agreed to undertake join steps to free the region from that threat.

India and Pakistan acknowledged they bear collective responsibility for the development of South Asia, the deputy foreign minister said.

The prime ministers had a previous meeting in August of 2014 at the inauguration of Modi following the parliamentary elections. Over the recent year, relations between the countries became complicated due to the growing tension at the control line (demarcation line between the countries, which is not recognised legally, but which is a border de facto).