ISLAMABAD, 2 January 2006 — Pakistan and India yesterday exchanged lists of their nuclear facilities, a requirement every Jan. 1 under an accord in which they promised not to attack each other’s nuclear installations.
“The governments of Pakistan and India today exchanged lists of their respective nuclear installations and facilities” under the 1988 agreement, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday.
Pakistan handed over its list of nuclear sites to an Indian diplomat in Islamabad, while a Pakistani diplomat received India’s list in New Delhi, the statement said.
The agreement came into force in 1991 and the first such exchange of information was on Jan. 1, 1992.
Under the agreement both Pakistan and India are to refrain from attacking each other’s nuclear facilities in the event of a war.
India conducted nuclear weapons tests in May 1998 and Pakistan in a tit-for-tat response detonated its own devices a few days later.
In January 2004, the two sides began a series of negotiations aimed at resolving the Kashmir issue and other disputes.
They have made little progress on Kashmir, but their push for peace has led to the restoration of severed transport links, including a bus service across the heavily militarized cease-fire line that splits Kashmir between them.
Last year in October the two countries formalized an agreement on pre-notification of ballistic missile tests. They have also set up a telephone hotline to prevent accidental nuclear conflict.
Top Foreign Ministry officials from Pakistan and India are to meet Jan. 17-18 in New Delhi for talks on Kashmir and other issues.
Railway officials are also slated to meet in New Delhi on Jan. 5-6 to discuss reopening a railroad link between Munabao in India and Pakistan’s border town of Khokhrapar which was terminated after a 1965 war between the two countries.
