Senior officials of India and Pakistan will hold two-day talks Monday on conventional and nuclear confidence-building measures in Islamabad, the first formal engagement since leaders of two countries met in the Maldives last month, Indian media reported.
Y.K. Sinha, joint secretary in charge of Pakistan desk in External Affairs Ministry, will lead Indian side at the talks on conventional CBMs, which will be held Monday. These will be followed by talks on nuclear CBMs Tuesday, with Venkatesh Verma, joint secretary in charge of disarmament in External Affairs Ministry, leading Indian delegation. Munawar Saeed Bhatti, additional secretary in Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Ministry, would head Pakistan delegation for both expert groups.
In 5th round of expert-level discussions on conventional CBMs, officials of two countries will focus on, among other things, implementing cross LoC-Kashmir trade and travel CBMs that were unveiled during talks between foreign ministers in July. The two sides are also expected to discuss an agreement for
removing weapons along the LoC and exchange notes on their war doctrines, report stated.
Issues relating to nuclear security and missile tests will also be discussed Tuesday when the two sides hold the sixth round of expert-level discussions on nuclear CBMs. The two sides are expected to explore possibilities of expanding the scope of nuclear CBMs to include a pre-notification of cruise
missile test launches. Indian side may push again for a no-first-use commitment from Islamabad, according to the report.
The expert-level meeting on nuclear and conventional CBMs is being held after a gap of four years. India and Pakistan will exchange lists of their nuclear installations and facilities January 1 under "Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities". This accord was signed December 31, 1988, and both countries exchange the list every year on Jan 1.
India and Pakistan resumed, in February this year, their dialogue process that was stalled after Nov 26, 2008, Mumbai terror attacks. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yusuf Raza Gilani met in the Maldives in November and decided to give a push to trust-building measures to
render an added momentum to the revived dialogue process.
Two days after the meeting on CMBs, there will be Track-II diplomacy as Pakistan India People's Forum for Peace & Democracy (PIPFD) will hold its seventh convention in Allahabad. The initiative has helped accelerate people-to-people contacts between the two countries. PPI
