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Senior defence officials from nuclear-armed South Asian rivals Pakistan and India are to meet later this week for talks on possible troop cuts at the world's highest frontline, an official said Monday.
An Indian defence ministry spokesman said the defence secretaries of the two countries would meet on Friday and Saturday, most likely in Islamabad, for fresh discussions on the 6,300-metre (20,800-feet) Siachen glacier.
Thousands of Indian and Pakistani soldiers are posted on the Siachen glacier — situated in the far north of Kashmir close to the Chinese border — where altitude, brutal cold and accidents have claimed more lives than actual combat.
The two sides fought regular artillery duels in the region up to November 2003, when a ceasefire was agreed along the heavily-militarised Line of Control.
Analysts say Siachen is of little strategic value, but the Indian army — which has occupied most of the high-altitude battlefield since 1987 — wants existing troop positions marked out to dissuade Pakistan from moving its soldiers forward in the event of a pull-out.
Pakistan, which claims all of Kashmir, fears that drawing down its positions would be tacit acceptance of India's claims to Siachen and the area as a whole. The two countries have fought two of their three wars over the region.
The Siachen issue was also raised in talks in New Delhi on Monday between Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri.
“The two ministers reviewed bilateral relations and discussed how to take the relations forward,” Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon told reporters.
“They discussed the Siachen and Sir Creek issues,” he said, referring to the glacier and an area on the far south of the border.
The ministers were meeting on the sidelines of preparations for a South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit due to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday.
