NEW DELHI, 21 June 2004 — India and Pakistan agreed yesterday to set up a hotline to avoid nuclear confrontation and continue a ban on nuclear tests, as the rivals came together to dismiss concerns by the world’s more established atomic powers, a major step forward in efforts to normalize relations between the longtime South Asian rivals.
In a joint statement at the conclusion of two days of talks in the Indian capital, officials said the dedicated secure hot line was intended to “prevent misunderstandings and reduce risks relevant to nuclear issues.”
The joint statement said an existing hot line between directors-general of military operations in both countries also would be upgraded and secured.
Both sides, which have gone to war three times since independence from Britain in 1947, also reaffirmed their moratorium on conducting further nuclear tests, “unless, in exercise of national sovereignty, it decides that extraordinary events have jeopardized its supreme interests.”
“We are moving ahead step by step. Whatever we agree to do, we must implement. That is the spirit,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan told reporters in New Delhi.
India and Pakistan carried out nuclear tests in May 1998, provoking military and economic sanctions by the United States and its allies. International fears of a nuclear confrontation were exacerbated when the two countries fought in the Himalayas in 1999, and came close to war again in mid-2002 when India blamed Pakistan for a terrorist attack on its Parliament.
India and Pakistan also agreed to formalize an understanding to notify each other when they conduct missile tests. Both sides discussed a draft treaty prepared by the Indian delegation. The talks, led by top Foreign Ministry officials, are only the first stage in the nuclear dialogue.
Currently, the two countries have conflicting nuclear policies, but Khan said officials were focussing on “the areas of convergence” rather than differences.
India — which enjoys a substantial advantage in conventional weapons over Pakistan — says it would not be the first to use nuclear weapons. Pakistan has not committed to a no-first-strike doctrine. In February 1999, former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee visited the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, where the two sides signed a preliminary agreement to reduce nuclear risks through confidence-building steps.
But plans to hold further nuclear talks were thwarted as relations deteriorated after the attack on the Indian Parliament in December 2001, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan’s spy agency and Pakistan-based militant groups. Both the agency and the militant groups denied the charge.
Yesterday’s joint statement said both countries would continue talks toward implementing the 1999 Lahore agreement. “The spirit right now in the nuclear realm is to transcend beyond the rhetoric and do something substantive and concrete,” Khan said.
India’s new Congress-led government is pursuing peace initiatives started by the previous government of Vajpayee, ousted from power in April-May national elections.
The next round of talks will be held between the foreign secretaries on June 27-28, in which they’ll take up the thorny issue of Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan province that has been the flashpoint of two wars between India and Pakistan.
In the meantime, Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar Singh and Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri will meet today on the sidelines of a regional conference in China.
