ISLAMABAD: A senior Pakistani official is expressing optimism that recent tensions with neighboring India over the bitterly disputed Kashmir region can be defused.

Sartaj Aziz, national security and foreign affairs adviser to the Pakistani prime minister, said that the commander of Pakistan’s border forces will travel to New Delhi Wednesday to meet his Indian counterpart.

The mountainous Kashmir region is claimed by both of the neighbors and split by the heavily guarded Line of Control.

Forces on both sides have frequently exchanged fire in recent months, causing multiple civilian and military deaths.