India-Pakistan and Sir Creek

Notwithstanding reports of ceasefire violations by Pakistan on the Line of Control (LoC), India and Pakistan will hold two-day talks on the Sir Creek issue in New Delhi from tomorrow.
The talks will be held between the Surveyors Generals from the two sides. They are expected to take forward their discussions on the basis on 'non-papers'. This will be the 12th round of talks between the two countries on Sir Creek. The last meeting on the issue was held in Rawalpindi on May 20 and 21 last year.
Sources, meanwhile, sought to play down the latest ceasefire violation by Pakistani troops in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district, saying such incidents had happened in the past as well. However, these incidents will not have a bearing on the dialogue process between the two countries.
On the Sir Creek issue, New Delhi has proposed a "mid-stream formula" among its proposals to resolve the dispute while Pakistan seems to have suggested that the line of delineation should be to the "east of the creek". This has led to a stalemate.
Sir Creek, named after a British official, is a 96 km strip of water that is disputed between the two countries in the Rann of Kutch marshlands. The creek, which opens up into the Arabian Sea, divides the Kutch region of the Indian state of Gujarat with the Sindh province of Pakistan. Originally and locally, it is called 'Baan Ganga'.
The long-standing dispute hinges in the actual demarcation "from the mouth of Sir Creek to the top of Sir Creek, and from the top of Sir Creek eastward to a point on the line designated on the Western Terminus".
From this point onwards, the boundary is unambiguously fixed as defined by the Tribunal Award of 1968. The creek itself is located in the uninhabited marshlands.
During the monsoon season between June and September, the creek floods its banks and envelops the low-lying salty mudflats around it. During the winter season, the area is home to flamingoes and other migratory birds.
The two countries will discuss the Sir Creek issue a week after their Defence Secretaries ended talks on the Siachen issue without making much headway.
However, officials said the two countries were keen to resolve this particular issue in an attempt to demonstrate to their people as well as the world at large that they were committed to resolving the disputes between them.
Even Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, who had visited India in early April on a private trip, had sought an early resolution to issues like Sir Creek and Siachen during his meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Both sides consider these two issues as 'do-ables'.
The Sir Creek talks were initially scheduled for mid-May but were postponed at Pakistan's behest. Islamabad apparently wanted to gauge India's mood on the Siachen issue before going into talks on Sir Creek.
For Pakistan, resolving the Siachen issue has assumed urgency after the avalanche in April which killed 140 of its soldiers. The Sir Creek talks will be followed by the meeting between the foreign secretaries of India and Pakistan towards the end of the month in New Delhi to do the groundwork for External Affairs Minister SM Krishna's visit to Pakistan in the third week of July.

LONG-STANDING ISSUE

Sir Creek is a 96-km disputed strip of water between India and Pakistan that separates the Kutch region of Gujarat from Pakistan’s Sindh province

REASON FOR STALEMATE

New Delhi has proposed a "mid-stream formula" to resolve the dispute. Pakistan seems to have suggested that the line of delineation should be to the "east of the creek"