Pak to offer CBMs during foreign secretary-level talks: report

Pakistan is expected to propose a series of new confidence-building measures, including the restoration of the 2003 ceasefire agreement to end hostilities along its border with India, during foreign-secretary level talks here tomorrow, according to a media report.
Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar will arrive in Islamabad tomorrow on a two-day trip as part of his 'SAARC Yatra' to hold talks on a range of issues.
Islamabad will be Jaishankar's third stop after visiting Thimphu and Dhaka. He will also travel to Afghanistan.
The new CBMs to be offered by Pakistan include a proposal to restore the 2003 ceasefire agreement between the two countries along their borders where outbreak of hostilities have hampered ties recently, the Express Tribune reported.

Pakistan would offer an end to months-long hostilities along the LoC and the working boundary, a senior official was quoted as saying by the daily.
"The proposal is part of CBMs Pakistan intends to put forward during the foreign secretary-level talks in Islamabad," the official.

Other proposals include an understanding to avoid public statements against each other at the official level.
"It really vitiates atmosphere when strong statements are issued at the official level," the official said.
An agreement on not issuing statements against each other would ensure diplomacy between the two countries was not conducted through the media, the official said.

Meanwhile, last week senior Indian officials said they were not expecting any dramatic results from Foreign Secretary's visit to Pakistan. They had emphasised that his visit was a "SAARC yatra and not a Pak yatra".
Jaishankar will travel to Pakistan seven months after India cancelled foreign secretary-level talks because the Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi held consultations with Kashmiri separatists.
The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) -- an economic and geopolitical grouping of eight countries located in South Asia -- includes Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka as its members.