India and Pakistan on Friday held third round of expert-level talks on nuclear confidence-building measures (CBMs) here with extensive interaction on the issue of pre-notification agreement on missile tests. At the two-day talks began on Friday, the Pakistani delegation was headed by Foreign Affairs Ministry Additional Secretary Tariq Osman Hyder, while the Indian side was led by Meera Shankar, Additional Secretary (UN), External Affairs Ministry.
Among others, the nine-member delegation included Director General South Asia, Foreign Office, Syed Ibn-e-Abbas. Deputy High Commissioner to India Munawwar Saeed and Defence Adviser in Pak High Commission, Brigadier Javed Sultan also participated in the dialogue.
With both the sides showing flexibility on the issues, this round of talks on nuclear CBMs is expected to make some considerable progress, well placed sources said.
At the conclusion of two-day talks on nuclear CBMs, a joint statement will hopefully be issued on Saturday. Talks on conventional CBMs will be held on August 8.
The progress made so far in the previous two rounds of talks was also reviewed at the meeting, besides deliberation upon other steps to take the process forward.
Earlier, Leader of Pakistani delegation Tariq Osman Hyder called on Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran at South Block. Pakistan's High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmad Khan was also present on the occasion.
On arrival of the Pakistani delegation here on Thursday, Tariq Osman had said that Islamabad looks forward to talks with New Delhi "with optimistic frame of mind" and wants "result-oriented progress" on nuclear and conventional CBMs.
With pre-notification agreement on missile tests high on the agenda, he said, "Both the countries have informal understanding and we notify each other in advance, but we need to formalise this.
"We would look forward to concluding the agreement, which of course will be recommended to the foreign secretaries of both the sides and would be signed later. On our part, we have shown the understanding to come to such an agreement," he added.
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