New Delhi, December 1
The next round of Composite Dialogue process with Pakistan has begun as a Railway delegation left today for Islamabad for technical discussions on Munabao (Rajasthan)-Khokhrapar (Pakistan Sindh) rail link which India is willing to start at the earliest.
The Indian delegation is led by an Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Railways and comprises officials from the Ministries of External Affairs and Home and departments of Customs and immigration, sources said. The discussions are slated to continue for two days.
A Pakistani delegation is to arrive here tomorrow for talks between the Indian Coast Guards and the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency to discuss a Memorandum of Understanding for establishing communication link between them.
The technical-level talks are also expected to focus on the plight of fishermen of both countries who stray while fishing and get caught by the other country’s security forces.
However, sources said, it was too early to say whether an agreement on the fishermen’s issue was on the anvil.
The Composite Dialogue process will be in full swing with a series of other important meetings this month.
Perhaps the most important and much-awaited meeting on all issues relating to commencement of a bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad is slated to take place here on December 7-8.
This will be followed by a meeting of the Committee of Experts on trade related issues (December 9-10 in New Delhi), Joint Survey of the Boundary Pillars in the Horizontal Segment in the Sir Creek Area (December 14-15 in Karachi), Expert-level meeting on nuclear CBMs to discuss the draft agreement on advance notification of missile tests (December 14-15 in Islamabad) and an expert- level meeting on Conventional CBMs.
