ISLAMABAD, 26 April 2006 — Pakistan and India yesterday began talks to reinforce confidence-building measures in the nuclear and conventional fields, with a special focus on “reducing risk of accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons,” officials said.
Pakistani Additional Foreign Secretary Tariq Osman Hyder and his Indian counterpart K. C. Singh led their respective delegations on the first day of the talks, which are being held as part of their ongoing peace talks, also known as the composite dialogue process.
“We exchanged ideas on overall confidence-building measures particularly the draft agreement on reducing risk of the accidental use of nuclear weapons,” Hyder told media in Islamabad at the end of the first day of talks. He said the two sides would discuss (in detail) this draft agreement and other issues relating to NCBMs tomorrow.
The two countries are also scheduled to hold talks on conventional confidence-building measures (CCBMs) tomorrow in Islamabad. This is the fourth round of talks on nuclear and conventional CBMs under the ongoing peace talks, which resumed in February 2004 after years of tensions that brought the two South Asian neighbors on the verge of a full-scale war.
“We are following a step-by-step approach in our talks with Pakistan on all issues including NCMBs,” leader of the Indian delegation K. C. Singh said.
He said his country wanted to carry forward the talks process and this is the spirit, which brought Indian delegation to Pakistan for discussions.
Yesterday, Pakistan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, at a meeting with Singh, reiterated Islamabad’s “commitment to the establishment of good neighborly relations with India and an environment of lasting peace in South Asia,” according to a separate ministry statement.
