Pakistan and India will hold preparatory talks on cross-Kashmir confidence-building measures (CBMs) today (Monday) in the Indian capital ahead of the meeting of their foreign ministers to be held later this month in New Delhi.
A six-member Pakistani delegation, headed by Zehra Akbari, Foreign Office South Asia Division (DGSA) Director General, reached New Delhi on Sunday for talks on Kashmir-specific CBMs. The Pakistani delegation will hold the meeting of the ‘joint working group’ on cross-Line of Control (LoC) CBMs with the Indian delegation headed by YK Sinha, joint secretary in charge of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran in the India’s External Affairs Ministry.
According to officials, the talks being held today (Monday) are likely to give a final shape to certain CBMs aimed at enhancing travel and trade to bring people on sides of the LoC together. “The two sides will discuss the modalities of the launch of the Kargil-Skardu bus link, an increase in the frequency of cross-Kashmir bus link between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar and an increase in the number of trading days across the LoC,” an official said on Sunday requesting anonymity.
He said some of those CBMs were likely to be announced by the foreign ministers of the two countries when they meet in New Delhi on July 27. Apart from that, he said the officials from Pakistan and India would also give final touches to an agreement on liberalising the visa regime aimed at greater people-to-people contacts between Pakistan and India. He said Pakistan and India would also hold a separate meeting of the working group on nuclear CBMs very soon.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar will reach New Delhi on July 26 for talks with India’s External Affairs Minister SM Krishna on the next day. Before the foreign ministers’ meeting there will be preparatory talks between Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir and his Indian counterpart Nirupama Rao on July 25.
