Islamabad: India and Pakistan will hold high-level defence talks in New Delhi on Tuesday on the issue of troops' pullout from the world's highest battlefield Siachen.
The two-day defence Secretary-level talks on Siachen will be followed by parleys on Sir Creek on May 25-28.
Top defence officials of the two countries would meet on May 23 in New Delhi to hold talks to reach the "final point" of an agreement to pull back troops from Siachen.
Large delegations led by Defence Secretary Shekhar Dutt and his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen (retd) Tariq W Ghazi will discuss the way forward under the third round of Composite Dialogue Process.
The two countries had expressed readiness last year to re-deploy the troops positioned at an altitude ranging from 18,000 feet and above in the glacier-clad mountains.
India has been insisting that a proper authentication be done with regard to the positions held by respective countries but Pakistan has not accepted so far.
Both sides were considering technical options such as satellite mapping of the positions to overcome their differences on the issue.
BJP leaders L K Advani and Jaswant Singh earlier cautioned the government to rush through an agreement. On May 17, Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee told Parliament that there were no plans of "pullout of troops at present from Siachen, where a ceasefire was in place from November 2003."
On May 11, National Security Advisor M K Narayanan had said both sides have presented "various options or recommendations to each other. "I don't think we have reached the final point but I think we are closer to that," he had said.
He had said that talks were on for finalizing modalities for authentication of present troop positions.
Pakistan Foreign Office, however, has declined to comment on it, saying it was part of an internal debate in India.
Foreign Office Spokesperson Tasnim Aslam said Pakistan for its part still expects progress in this month's Defence Secretary-level talks in New Delhi on Siachen and would not like to prejudge the outcome of the talks.
"I would not comment on statements emanating from India. There is an internal debate, (going on). What we expect from peace talks is progress. I would not like to prejudge the outcome. Our expectations remain that we will be able to move forward. We are rather focused what happened in the talks that are not far very off now than what is being said in India," Aslam said earlier this week.
At the talks on Sir Creek, Surveyor General of India Maj Gen M Gopal Rao will represent the Indian side while Pakistan's Additional Secretary, Defence, Admiral Ahsan-ul-Haq Chaudhri will lead his country's delegation.
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