Islamabad: Defence and Foreign office officials from India and Pakistan will hold three-day talks beginning Tuesday (Dec 14, 2004) on nuclear and conventional confidence building measures (CBMs) that would include a possible agreement on giving advance notice to each other before conducting missile tests.

The meeting would discuss follow-up measures on the understanding reached between the two countries in the first round of discussions on the defence related issues held in June this year.

An Indian delegation comprising of officials from the Army, Air Force, Navy and External Affairs Ministry would take part in the nuclear CBM talks to be held between Dec 14 and 15, officials in Islamabad said.

Another set of talks will be held between two different delegations on the Conventional weapons CBMs from Dec 15 and 16.

Officials said that during the talks on nuclear CBMs the two sides will discuss a draft agreement on advance notification of missile tests.

The two countries already inform each other routinely about their missile tests and also periodically update the list of the locations of nuclear installations, mostly the civilian nuclear power generation units, to avoid attacks in case of war.

In the first round of talks held on the nuclear CBMS in June in New Delhi, both sides agreed to put in place a dedicated and secure hotline between their Foreign Secretaries to prevent misunderstandings and to reduce risks relevant to nuclear issues.

During the talks both countries said that their nuclear capabilities, based on "national security imperatives," constituted a "factor for stability."

The Dec 14-15 talks would focus on follow up measure on the nuclear CBM, officials here said.

The talks would focus on nuclear strategic stability, an agreement on prior notification on ballistic missile tests and improving communications, they said.

On the Conventional front, this is the first time that the talks were being held between the two countries.

Pakistan proposes strategic stability regime in the conventional weapons field and wants inclusion of nuclear missile restraint regime, conventional balance and conflict resolution.

"This is the first time that we are holding talks on CBMs on conventional weapons. The talks were expected to be preliminary in nature and effort will be made to understand each others positions," the officials said.