ISLAMABAD, Jan 15: The first meeting of the Pakistan-Russia Consultative Group on Strategic Stability will be held in Moscow on Thursday, Dawn reliably learnt here on Wednesday.

The meeting marks the first-ever strategic dialogue between Islamabad and Moscow. The open-ended agenda, diplomatic sources said, is focused on disarmament and conflict resolution.

“An overview of current global and regional situation, the existing threat perceptions, regional tensions, including in South Asia, and any other issue that either side may like to raise will also be discussed at the meeting,” the sources further said.

A high-level Pakistan delegation, led by UN additional secretary Tariq Usman Haider, left for Moscow on Wednesday for bilateral talks on disarmament, foreign office sources said. Azhar Elahi, director disarmament and key aide of foreign secretary Riaz Khokhar, is also a member of the delegation.

“These are just normal bilateral consultations with the Russians,” said one official at the ministry of foreign affairs when contacted by Dawn on Wednesday.

The consultative group, formed earlier this year, will meet every year alternately in Moscow and Islamabad.