India and Pakistan hold Siachen glacier talks

NEW DELHI, INDIA – Pakistan and India are holding talks on whether to demilitarize the Siachen glacier, known as the world’s highest battlefield.

The two-day meeting that began Monday in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi is the 13th round of talks and the first time both sides have met on the issue since April, when an avalanche buried 140 Pakistani troops and staff stationed at a Siachen base. The site is located at an altitude of 4,000 meters and is just a few kilometers away from Indian outposts.

The incident prompted calls for Pakistan and India to pull their troops from the disputed glacier, where more troops have lost their lives due to bad weather than fighting.

Indian Defense Secretary Shashikant Sharma is meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nargis Sethi, with a joint statement expected to be issued at the end of talks on Tuesday.

The standoff at Siachen began in 1984 when Indian troops occupied positions on the northern tip of the