Pakistan and India opened talks yesterday to hammer out an agreement on giving advance warning of ballistic missile tests and other steps to avert any accidental launch of nuclear weapons.
The talks between senior officials from the South Asian neighbors, part of a slow-moving peace process begun in January, will focus on so-called nuclear confidence-building measures.
With a chequered history of relations, including three wars since independence in 1947, India and Pakistan "have to be responsible nuclear weapons states," Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan said.
"There should not be an accidental or unauthorized launch or exchange of nuclear weapons, that will cause havoc," he said, adding that the measures under discussion would create an environment for "nuclear risk reduction."
Pakistan and India held tit-for-tat nuclear detonations in May 1998 and have twice since come close to war over divided Kashmir.
However the two countries normally inform each other when holding one of their frequent missile tests and the talks may lead to the signing of a formal agreement on the issue.
The delegations are led by additional secretary at the Pakistani foreign ministry Tariq Osman Hyder and his Indian counterpart Meera Shankar.
"We are very happy to be in Islamabad. The weather is certainly better than Delhi at the moment," Shankar told reporters in the Pakistani capital.
"We look forward to continuing the dialogue on nuclear CBMs [confidence building measures] that we started in June," she said. "I look forward to a result-oriented process which will be in the interests of both the countries."
At the talks in New Delhi in June -- the first in the current peace process -- the two countries recognized the need to work for "strategic stability" in the region, Pakistan's Khan said.
The two sides are expected to discuss the details of a hotline between top foreign ministry officials to regularly communicate with each other, he added.
In June both sides agreed to set up the hotline and reiterated a 1999 agreement that neither would hold another nuclear test unless forced to by "extraordinary events."
They already have a hotline between senior military commanders.
"We have covered some ground. We want to build and expand on this understanding," Khan said.
A second expert-level meeting is scheduled today to discuss confidence-building measures in the conventional field.
However analysts say India and Pakistan, who have both refused to sign non-proliferation treaties because they are not formally recognized as nuclear powers, had not convinced the world that their safety moves would be effective.
"This is all part of confidence-building measures, but to become responsible nuclear nations the two countries need to do much more," Parvez Hoodbhoy, a nuclear physics professor at Islamabad's Quaid-e-Azam University, told reporters.
Pakistan has come under particular scrutiny after it emerged that scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of the country's nuclear program, passed nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Khan in February took full responsibility and received a conditional pardon from President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf has said that no Pakistani government or military body was involved.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese