Indo-Pak officials make progress on Kashmir-related CBMs

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July 18, 2008 23:42 IST

Indian and Pakistani officials made "significant progress" in talks in Islamabad on Friday on Kashmir-related confidence-building measures and details will be made public when the foreign secretaries of the two countries meet next week.

The meeting of the Working Group on cross-Line of Control CBMs made several decisions that will be announced when the foreign secretaries meet in New Delhi during July 21-22 to launch the fifth round of the composite dialogue, official sources told PTI.

Though the sources said "significant progress" had been made in Friday's talks, they refused to divulge details about the decisions that were made.

A brief joint statement issued after the talks said the meeting was held in a "cordial and constructive atmosphere".

The two sides discussed modalities for implementing decisions taken at the meeting between External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Islamabad on May 21, it said.

The two sides also "reviewed measures to ensure the effective implementation of existing cross-LoC measures," the statement said.

During their meeting in May, Mukherjee and Qureshi had decided to increase the frequency of the two existing bus services between the divided parts of Kashmir. They also decided to finalise modalities for "intra-Kashmir trade and truck service as early as possible".

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