Pakistan and India failed on Tuesday to break ice on how to demilitarise the Siachen glacier, the world’s highest battlefield, in a sign of how far apart the two neighbours are even on less contentious issues.
The two sides welcomed the dialogue but made no mention in a joint statement of any progress. Instead, they announced they would meet yet again in Islamabad, which would be the 13th round of talks on the issue. “Both sides presented their position and suggestions towards the resolution of Siachen,” they said in the statement.
Defence secretaries from both countries held two days of closed-door talks in New Delhi on how to agree on withdrawing troops from the financially costly, mountainous no-man’s land and defining the official border. Indian media reported that both sides had stuck to their long-standing positions. “Neither can we say this is a success or a failure. But we cannot say there is forward movement,” an Indian Defence Ministry official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.
Online news agency quoted defence sources as saying that Pakistan’s DGMO Maj Gen Ashfaq Nadeem and his Indian counterpart Lt Gen Anand Mohan Verma held an important meeting on the sidelines of the secretary-level talks.
It's freezing at high altitude…
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