India-Pak technical-level meeting on locust issue proposed for June 18: MEA

A technical-level meeting between India and Pakistan to discuss the issue of locust menace has been proposed for June 18, the Ministry External Affairs said on Thursday.

MEA Spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said that last month India had taken an initiative to develop regional cooperation to control locusts and as part of this cooperation it has dispatched 20,000 litres of pesticide to Iran.

This pesticide is expected to reach Iran at the port of Chabahar on June 15, he said.

"As regards Pakistan, we had proposed to them that we can activate the technical-level meetings in the run up to the main meetings and these technical-level meetings could take place between the locust warning organizations," he said.

"We had also proposed that we can undertake joint locust control operations and we could facilitate the supply of pesticides. We have not received any formal response from Pakistan, but we understand now that the technical-level meeting is proposed on June 18," he said.

India had proposed to Pakistan and Iran for a coordinated approach in dealing with the alarming threat of fast-increasing desert locusts in the region.