ISLAMABAD: As the Foreign Secretaries of India and Pakistan prepare to meet for talks on November 14 and 15, officials are playing down expectations of any "major breakthrough" and emphasising that the event is important just for the reason that it marks the resumption of dialogue after the July 11 Mumbai blasts.

Officials here said they had not expected such an "early" resumption of the composite dialogue process after India suspended it following the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and that the most important breakthrough is that the meeting is taking place.

The Foreign Secretaries were to have met on July 21 but India shelved that appointment. It was only at the Havana talks between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in September that the ice was broken and the two sides decided to resume the stalled process.

Last month, Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said the two countries were close to an agreement on the Siachen and spoke of the possibility of a breakthrough on the issue at the upcoming talks that could in turn hasten a visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan.

But even before Saturday's statements from the Indian Army that there was no question of pulling back from the glacier, Pakistani officials were conservative, saying only that the two sides would "revisit" past discussions on the demilitarisation of the world's highest battlefield to examine if differences could be narrowed down.

Pakistan media views

Pakistan, as reflected in the media, hungers for a big-ticket agreement such as the Siachen, if not Kashmir. Even there, with the Indian media reporting that New Delhi will ask Pakistan to "walk the talk" on terrorism, newspapers in Pakistan have reported that Islamabad will not allow the issue of Kashmir to be "sidelined" at the talks.

Sense of pragmatism

But at the official level, there is more a sense of pragmatism, with the feeling that after Mumbai, India is not yet ready to play a big hand. Pakistan said immediately after the Mumbai blasts that there was no option but to talk, and there is an air of vindication in official circles that India is in agreement on this.

While the two sides are sure to discuss the joint institutional mechanism on terror that they have agreed to set up, officials are hoping to make modest but incremental progress on other issues.

The main agreements could be in the category of "peace and security," one of the six subjects in the composite dialogue format of secretary-level talks, and one that is the domain of the foreign secretaries.

Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his Pakistan counterpart Riaz Mohammed Khan are likely to sign into agreement proposals already discussed by technical experts in April 2006 on military confidence-building measures.

This may include finalising a proposal from Pakistan "on the Prevention of Incidents at Sea in order to ensure safety of navigation by naval vessels and aircraft".

The two sides also agreed at that meeting to reduce the possibility of future conflicts by finalising Border Ground Rules along the International Border, which could mean more flag meetings on the Line of Control.

The two sides may also finalise a proposed hotline between the Indian Coast Guard and the Maritime Security Agency of Pakistan for surveillance at sea.

The Dawn reported on Sunday that a draft agreement between the two countries to prevent nuclear accidents in circulation since 2005 may also be agreed upon.

Another agreement on prisoner-exchange may also be in the offing. Pakistani officials are advocating a "clean-slate" approach, that is release all prisoners bar those being held for alleged heinous offences such as terrorism or murder.

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