India sticks to May-end schedule for Pak talks

India has declined Pakistans request to advance the talks between their defence officials to the end of this month.

India has declined Pakistans request to advance the talks between their defence officials to the end of this month saying that dialogues would be held in the order that was agreed between the two countries at Thimphu.

Talks between the Defence Secretaries of both nations will be held end-May only after the talks on trade and water resources, said a government official. Though there was a request from Pakistan to advance the talks,India has pointed out that the schedule agreed upon at Thimphu cannot be changed, he said.

Sources said the request for advancing the defence talks was made during an informal meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousuf Raza Gilani on the fringes of the cricket World Cup semi-final between both nations at Chandigarh last month.

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Media from both sides has been reporting that the defence officials would be meeting in Rawalpindi on April 22 to resume talks on the Siachen glacier and Sir Creek.

Talks on confidence-building measures and culture would follow the defence talks,said the official.

Islamabad has been demanding de-militarisation of the worlds highest battlefield Siachen glacier and Sir Creek where both sides have maintained a ceasefire since November 2003.

India has been pressing for delineation of the 110-km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) beyond the NJ-9842 reference point,where the Line of Control simply stopped in the 1972 Shimla Pact,up to the Karakoram Pass.

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And this time,it would be pressing harder for its authentication since the glacier has shifted 15 km into the neighbours territory. Moreover,there is considerable apprehension over reports that Chinese troops have been amassing near Indias Line of Control with Pakistan.

Both India and Pakistan maintain a Brigade-level presence across the 6,300-metre glacier but Indian troops occupy most of the dominating posts on the Saltoro Ridge of the glacier.

The Sir Creek dispute lies in the interpretation of the maritime boundary line between Kutch in India and Sindh in Pakistan. All previous meetings on the issue have ended in deadlock. As a result both countries keep troops deployed across the 6,300-metre glacier where the weather claims more lives than fighting.