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India, Pakistan Coast Guard chiefs to meet

NEW DELHI: The Coast Guard chiefs of India and Pakistan will meet here on Wednesday to discuss enhanced maritime cooperation as part of confidence-building measures between the two countries.

Coast Guard Director-General Vice Admiral R. F. Contractor and his Pakistani counterpart and Director-General of Pakistan Maritime Security Agency, Rear Admiral Tayyab Ali Dogar, would discuss transgression of fishermen into each other’s territory, exchange of detained fishermen and other matters of mutual interest in an attempt to improve maritime cooperation, official sources here said.

Coast Guard-level relations have been improving with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 2005 and the operationalisation of a hotline last year.

Vice Admiral Contractor had said earlier this year that the hotline had improved coordination with the Pakistani Maritime Security Agency. Fishing boats straying five nautical miles (about 9 km) into each other’s boundary are usually returned if nothing incriminating is found. The hotline has also helped avoid fleeing fishermen from being fired upon by the other side when they do not heed calls to stop.

India is seeking a buffer zone extending five miles into each other’s maritime boundary to minimise transgressions by fishermen leading to their arrest.

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