India and Pakistan will hold the next round of expert-level talks on nuclear confidence-building measures on August 5 and 6 and the home secretary-level meeting in New Delhi on terrorism in late August, officials announced in New Delhi.
A meeting on conventional CBMs will be held on August 8. The Pakistani delegation will be led by Tariq Osman Hyder, additional secretary in the Foreign Office in Islamabad.
Announcing the schedule for meetings within the framework of the composite dialogue process, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said the home secretary-level talks on terrorism and drug trafficking will be held on August 29 and 30.
The commerce secretaries of the two countries will also meet in New Delhi on August 9 and 10 to discuss economic and commercial cooperation and co-chair the meeting of the Joint Study Group.
The secretary of the Indian Culture Ministry will fly to Islamabad for a two-day meeting with his Pakistani counterpart from July 26 to continue dialogue on promotion of friendly exchanges in varioius fields.
The two sides will review the progress made so far in the two rounds held on nuclear CBMs and steps to carry them
forward.
Considerable progress was reported at the last round of talks in Islamabad in December with Pakistan changing its
known stand and saying for the first time that South Asia was no longer a 'nuclear flashpoint'.
Both sides have expressed their desire to keep working towards elaboration and implementation of nuclear CBMs, within the agreed framework.
Upgradation of the existing hotlines between the director generals of military opearations and establishment of a dedicated and secure hotline between the foreign secretaries of the two countries are issues that are expected to come up for follow-up action during the meeting.
These measures are intended to prevent misunderstanding and reduce risks relevant to nuclear issues.
The two sides at the last meeting had, however, failed to make any progress on conventional CBMs.
