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| Monday, 21 June 2004 |
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India, Pakistan renew nuclear test ban NEW DELHI, Sunday (Reuters) India and Pakistan agreed to renew a moratorium on nuclear test explosions, the Indian foreign ministry said on Sunday, after unprecedented talks to reduce the risk of nuclear war. During two days of meetings, both sides -- who came close to war two years ago-- also agreed to establish a telephone hotline between the bureaucrats heading each foreign ministry to prevent a sudden nuclear flare-up. "Each side reaffirmed its unilateral moratorium on conducting further nuclear test explosions unless, in exercise of national sovereignity, it decides that extraordinary events have jeopardised its supreme interests," India's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, without giving details. After tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998, both sides declared a moratorium, saying further tests were unnecessary. Both countries have limited nuclear command and control structures and analysts say such talks are crucial for building understanding and communication. The weekend agreement set the scene for a planned first meeting between Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh and Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri in China on Monday, where they will discuss a range of issues on the sidelines of a regional conference. The eight-member Pakistani team called on Singh on Saturday, the highest level meeting since India's Communist-backed Congress coalition came to power last month. This weekend's talks are part of a series of meetings over the next few weeks, some planned before the election, in which India's new government will seek to improve ties with Pakistan, China and the United States. The chief bureaucrats of both foreign ministries are due to meet next Sunday in the Indian capital to talk about key disputes, including the row over Kashmir that has triggered two of the neighbours' three wars and brought them close to another in mid-2002. The Pakistani team is headed by senior foreign ministry official Tariq Osman Hyder and the Indian delegation by Sheel Kant Sharma from the ministry of external affairs. "It is very important to understand each other's (nuclear) vocabulary and thinking," Amitabh Mattoo, an academic and former member of the National Security Advisory Board, told Reuters. "The very act of sharing ideas leads to learning about each others' misconceptions and what each side construes as a (nuclear) threat." India's media has been keenly following the cautious peace process between the South Asian rivals started by former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in April, 2003. "Indo-Pak fusion on nuclear doctrines," The Times of India said in a headline, referring to New Delhi's statement on both sides identifying areas of convergence. |
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