India, Pakistan to talk on Siachen

New Delhi, May 22 (UNI) India and Pakistan will begin tomorrow the Tenth Round of Defence Secretary-Level Talks to end their conflict over the Siachen glacier and discuss a proposal for withdrawing their troops from the icy battlefield.

The two sides are said to be close to a historic breakthrough on mutual withdrawal of troops from the 76-km-long Siachen glacier where thousands of soldiers have died not so much due to war but because of altitude sickness, accidents and deadly avalanches.

But the latest attack by militants on the eve of the Siachen talks and the Second Round-Table on Jammu and Kashmir -- to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh -- can affect the atmospherics for the Defence Secretary-level talks on demilitarisation of the glacier, said sources here.

The Indian side will be lead by Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt while Lt Gen (Retd) Tariq Waseem Ghazi will head the Pakistani side.

The Indian position presses for marking of troop positions on a map as well as on the ground -- the Actual Ground Position Line -- as evidence in case the area is reoccupied after a deal, official sources here said.

Pakistan opposes authentication of ground positions on the Siachen, located at a height of 22,000 feet in the Himalayas, as it believes such an exercise would legitimise Indian occupation of the strategic glacier in 1984.

However, if both sides are able to resolve differences and pull off a breakthrough on the over-two-decade-old issue, the deal could form the basis of a likely visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan later this summer.

The Cabinet Committee on Security -- at a meeting last Friday -- has already approved the framework of the India-Pakistan talks on Siachen and the Sir Creek issues. Ahead of the talks, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said each side will ''put forward their perceptions''.

The talks on Siachen -- part of the ongoing Composite Dialogue between the two countries -- will be followed by two-day talks on the demarcation of the Sir Creek -- the narrow strip of marshland that separates the two countries along their western border.

Thereafter, the two countries will hold Home Secretary-level parleys on terrorism and drug-trafficking on May 30-31 in Islamabad.

This will be followed by talks between Culture Secretaries on the promotion of friendly exchanges on June 1 and 2 here.

UNI DG RL BD1811