The military operations chiefs of India and Pakistan are set to discuss on Monday the next steps for the nuclear-armed neighbours, India said, as a ceasefire returned calm to the border, and their equity markets edged higher.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) reaffirmed India's longstanding policy that all matters concerning Jammu and Kashmir are strictly bilateral between India and Pakistan, excluding any third-party involvement.

As tensions ratcheted up over the last week of fighting, Pakistan did not consider deploying nuclear warheads to strike India, the country’s foreign minister Ishaq Dar told CNN on Monday. In his first interview since India and Pakistan agreed to a ceasefire Saturday,