July 16, 2005	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 8, 1426

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

ISLAMABAD, July 15: Pakistan and India will hold expert-level talks on nuclear confidence building measures (CBMs) on Aug 5-6, in New Delhi. The talks would be followed by a meeting on conventional CBMs on Aug 8, a foreign ministry source told Dawn on Friday. The dates were firmed up through diplomatic channels on Friday, he added.

This will be the third round of talks on the nuclear issue between the two countries since the resumption of the composite dialogue framework in 2004, and the second on conventional CBMs.

Additional secretary (UN& EC) Tariq Osman Hyder at the Foreign Ministry will lead the Pakistani delegation at the talks.

Additional Secretary International Organisations at the Indian External Affairs Ministry will lead the Indian delegation.

The two teams are expected to discuss a host of proposals on nuclear and conventional CBMs, including a draft agreement on pre-notification of flight-testing missiles.

Diplomats and defence officials say if the agreement is firmed up, it would be a good confidence building measure.

“It would be a very useful measure and avert apprehensions particularly when relations between the two countries get tense,” is how a defence official put it.

The upgradation of hotline between the DGMOs of the two countries and progress on dedicated hotlines between the foreign secretaries would figure in the talks, as would Pakistan’s proposal on strategic restraint regime (SRR), sources said.

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)