Print

Mail

wiki links

Kashmir, nuclear weapons focus of talks in Islamabad

Pakistan and India launched a new round of peace talks yesterday, focusing on the dispute over Kashmir and on limiting nuclear and conventional arsenals in South Asia, officials said.

The two-day talks between Indian foreign secretary Shiv Shankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart, Riaz Mohammed Khan, marked the fourth round since a January 2004 deal to resume negotiations after a tense military standoff.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir -- also known as Jammu and Kashmir.

They each hold part of the region but claim it in its entirety.

"Talks between Pakistan and India have started at the foreign office," a Pakistani foreign ministry official said on condition of anonymity.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam said late on Monday that there were "two specific issues before them which they will discuss. These are [the] Jammu and Kashmir dispute and peace and security."

The three-year-old peace process has reduced mutual suspicion through a series of "confidence-building measures" including establishing transport links, but it has moved at a snail's pace.

It suffered a near-fatal blow last July when India accused Pakistan's military spy agency and Pakistan-based Islamic militants of involvement in train blasts in the Indian commercial hub of Mumbai, which killed 186 people.

Yet India and Pakistan pushed ahead with a meeting of their foreign ministers last month after the firebombing of a "Friendship Express" train running between the two countries.

In an echo of previous Pakistani statements urging India to take a more proactive approach, Aslam said it was "important" to move forward on the Kashmir issue from confidence-building measures to actual dispute resolution.

"We believe that an early resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue will pave the way for durable peace in this region and bring about greater cooperation in South Asia," she said.
This story has been viewed 1014 times.