Indo-Pak talks on CBMs from October 18

Islamabad, Oct 13: India and Pakistan will hold expert-level talks on conventional and nuclear confidence building measures (CBMs) on October 18 and 19 in New Delhi.

The two countries are likely to ink two agreements on speedy return of those who inadvertently cross over the border and enter the territory of each other and prevention of such incidents at sea.

The two nuclear powers will hold vital talks at the level of experts on conventional and nuclear CBMs in New Delhi in the third week of October, said a senior official requesting anonymity here.

He said that during the talks, it is expected that the two sides would ink the agreements on speedy return of those people crossing over both the terrestrial and sea borders inadvertently.

Talking about the return of inadvertent violators of the border, the official said is a humanitarian issue.

"Both governments acknowledge that presently an agreement is being negotiated, and we hope this would be signed at the earliest," he added.

The official said groundwork had been completed on the second agreement about prevention of incidents at sea that could result in conflict like situation between the neighbouring countries.

The official said that the talks with New Delhi on conventional CBMs would be held on October 18 and on nuclear CBMs would be held on October 19.

According to official, the last round of talks on nuclear as well as conventional CBMs were held in April 2006 in Islamabad.

The forthcoming talks, he added, would review the implementation of the CBMs already agreed upon.

He said apart from reviewing old and already agreed upon CBMs, Pakistan and India are also expected to discuss some new proposals.

He said that Islamabad and New Delhi would hold second meeting on anti- terrorism mechanism in New Delhi on October 22, a few days after the conclusion of CBMs talks, The Nation reported.

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