India, Pakistan resume talks on nuclear issues
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-08-05 16:31

India and Pakistan have begun a fresh round of talks aimed at building trust on military issues and avoiding an accidental nuclear war between the neighbouring rivals, AFP reported. 

The two sides hope to finalise an agreement to notify each other ahead of missile tests and upgrade an existing hotline to reduce risks of nuclear accidents, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said on Friday.

It is the third round of discussions in the so-called nuclear confidence building measures. Previous meetings, part of a peace process that began in January 2004, were also held in June and last December.

But analysts say the mood has changed from the heady optimism three months ago, when leaders of the two nations said the peace process, aimed at ending nearly 60 years of mutual hostility, was "irreversible."

The latest round comes after US President George W. Bush announced that the United States would share nuclear technology with India.

India and Pakistan conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapon tests in May 1998. They have fought three wars since independence in 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.

After coming close to a fourth war in 2002, the rivals launched a peace process in January last year to resolve all issues through dialogue, including the Kashmir dispute.

When the experts from the two sides met in December 2004 in Pakistan, they agreed to push forward plans for a nuclear hotline but failed to reach a deal on advanced warning of ballistic missile tests.

In January, the two countries exchanged lists of their nuclear facilities in line with a bilateral agreement signed in 1998 prohibiting attacks against each other's nuclear installations.

Although the two countries normally inform each other when holding missile tests, no formal deal has been signed.

The ongoing talks are aimed at resolving eight nagging disputes between India and Pakistan, including the core problem of Kashmir where a raging Islamic insurgency has killed tens of thousands of people since 1989.

The delegations for this round are being led by senior foreign ministry officials Tariq Osman Hyder of Pakistan and India's Meera Shankar.

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