ISLAMABAD, 18 May 2004 — Pakistan will hold its first talks with India since its change of government on nuclear restraint next week, the Foreign Ministry announced yesterday.
Senior Foreign Ministry officials will discuss nuclear confidence building measures on May 25 and 26, spokesman Masood Khan said.
“We are making preparations and our delegation will leave for New Delhi on May 24,” Khan told a weekly news briefing.
“The talks are about strategic stability, crisis management and nuclear risk reduction.”
Pakistan and India are nuclear states and they must have a strategic restraint regime, he said. The South Asian rivals, who conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in May 1998, have refused to sign nuclear non-proliferation treaties because they are not formally recognized as nuclear powers.
The nuclear talks were scheduled under a calendar of activities agreed on during the outgoing government of Atal Behari Vajpayee.
Khan welcomed as “positive and constructive” the statement given by the Congress party leader and prime minister in waiting Sonia Gandhi to continue the nascent peace process initiated by her rival Vajpayee.
“I think it was a very positive statement. She said her party would continue to engage Pakistan and it would continue to support the peace process. Other Congress leaders have also given very positive and constructive statements. We welcome them,” Khan said.
“This is a must. I think they realize that war is not the option.”
The neighboring rivals launched a two-pronged strategy of confidence building and dialogue after a landmark agreement between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Vajpayee in January to resolve all issues including the festering Kashmir dispute.
Rival claims for the Himalayan region’s sovereignty have caused two of their three wars over the past 56 years.
Under the agreed timetable, the foreign secretaries are to meet in June for talks on Kashmir and security issues. Foreign ministers are slated to meet in August to review progress.
