India, Pakistan border security chiefs to meet in September

Islamabad: India and Pakistan border security force chiefs will meet in New Delhi next month, said Pakistani officials, days after the first high-level peace talks in years between the two countries collapsed.

The chiefs of the Pakistan Rangers and the Indian Border Security Force will meet in New Delhi from September 9 to 13, according to a statement released on Wednesday.

Representatives from the two paramilitary border forces held a meeting on Tuesday at the Wagah-Attari border “to coordinate modalities of (the) September meeting”, the statement said.

Indian officials were not immediately available to confirm the meeting.

On Saturday, the first high-level peace talks between the two country’s national security advisors were cancelled after a dispute over the agenda for those talks.

In the cancelled talks, India wanted to only discuss terrorism-related issues and objected to Pakistan’s intentions of meeting separatists from Kashmir. Pakistan wanted a wider agenda.

The NSA and border security force meetings, were agreed during a regional summit in the Russian town of Ufa last month, when Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif met his Indian counterpart.