ISLAMABAD, 4 October 2005 — Pakistan and India yesterday signed two separate agreements to give advance notice of ballistic missile tests and to set up a hotline between the Indian coast guards and Pakistan’s maritime security agency, sources said.
Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Mohammed Khan signed the agreement for pre-notification of ballistic missile tests.
The two countries also agreed to hold Joint Economic Commission meetings for the first time in 16 years Saran told a news conference after the ministerial-level talks.
India’s Director General Coast Guards Vice Adm. A.K. Singh and his Pakistani counterpart signed the document for setting up the hotline.
Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri, announced the agreement after talks that they described as cordial and constructive. Groundwork for the deal was laid in talks in the Indian capital of New Delhi last month.
“The agreement entails that both countries provide each other advance notification of flight tests that it intends to undertake of any surface-to-surface ballistic missile,” the Indian side said in a statement.
“India has now handed over a draft memorandum of understanding on measures to reduce the risks of accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons under the control of both countries,” the statement said.
Natwar and Kasuri were discussing the peace moves launched in early 2004 by nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan, who are aiming to patch up relations after more than half a century of bitterness.
The talks cover eight subjects including Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan and the trigger of two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
The peace process has so far produced a number of largely symbolic steps, including a bus service across divided Kashmir and resumption of sporting ties, but progress has been sluggish on central issues such as Kashmir itself.
The missile test warning deal was first struck during talks between Indian and Pakistani officials in New Delhi in August but was now being officially brought into force.
Pakistan and India routinely test nuclear-capable missiles but for the past few years they have always given prior notice to what they called “neighboring countries”.
At around the time the deal was being signed yesterday, India successfully tested a homemade surface-to-air missile three times at a coastal range.
The coastguard hotline deal comes in the context of frequent arrests by both India and Pakistan of each others’ fishermen for straying into their respective territorial waters in the Arabian Sea.
“The communication link will lead to early exchange of information between the two sides regarding apprehended fishermen who inadvertently stray into each other’s territories,” the statement said.
On the Kashmir dispute, Saran reiterated Indian position ruling out any change in the borders.
“We have said in the past that we are not able to really countenance any territorial changes, but we have said, short of that, whatever can be done to address the adverse human consequences ... we should address those negative consequences.
“And I think that is precisely what we have been trying to do,” he said.
The Islamabad meeting follows a meeting in September between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York that ended without any major initiatives, contrary to some expectations.
On Friday India unveiled a series of measures to spur people-to-people contacts with Pakistan.
Natwar was likely to meet Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz today, and revive a joint commission for promoting economic cooperation and other contacts. He will also travel to the port city of Karachi to meet business leaders. He returns to India tomorrow.
