7-step accord to reduce Indo-Pak tension
The two sides also agreed to continue an existing ceasefire along the Line of Control (Loc), the de facto border in Kashmir, said a joint statement issued after day-long talks between senior foreign ministry officials.
In addition, India and Pakistan would upgrade an existing military hotline and hold monthly flag meetings between high-ranking military officers along their borders, the statement said.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Other measures were the continuation of existing agreements to respect each other's air space, to speedily return civilians who inadvertently stray across their borders and to constantly review existing confidence building measures.
The Indo-Pak officials discussed more military safeguards yesterday after weekend talks yielded ground-breaking agreements on steps to avoid an accidental nuclear war.
"The officials ended one leg of talks, broke for lunch and currently have begun another round," an Indian official said, adding the discussions were expected to last till late afternoon.
The India team is led by senior foreign ministry official Dilip Sinha while the Pakistani delegation is headed by Tariq Osman Hyder, additional secretary in Pakistan's foreign ministry.
On the table is an Indian proposal for greater contact between their military establishments to reduce mutual suspicion, according to strategic affairs analyst C. Raja Mohan.
Upgrading an existing hotline between the director-generals of military operations of the two countries will also be discussed, said the Indian official, who declined to be identified.
The neighbouring nations on Saturday formally agreed to notify each other in advance of plans to test ballistic missiles and to establish by September a hotline between top foreign ministry officials on nuclear issues.
The two countries conducted tit-for-tat nuclear tests in 1998 and came to the brink of war in 2002. India and Pakistan, who have fought three wars since 1947, routinely carry out tests of nuclear-capable missiles.
Monday's talks were "an important part of the composite dialogue process," said C.U. Bhaskar, interim head of the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, a Delhi-based government funded military think-tank.
"For two countries who have a history of tensions like India and Pakistan, having military and conventional confidence-building measures is important," he said.
Bhaskar said India's charge that Pakistan supports an Islamic rebellion in Indian Kashmir would be part of the talks Monday.
"It will be discussed. We may not arrive at any agreements but that should not deter us from discussing the subject."
Raja Mohan, writing in the Indian Express, said talks over the last 15 years have only produced two conventional military agreements -- the prior notification of military exercises near the border and a commitment by the air forces not to violate each other's airspace.
He said the weekend agreements represented the first nuclear confidence-building measures in two decades.
Hindu-dominated India's stated nuclear policy is not to strike first with nuclear weapons. Muslim majority Pakistan, worried about India's growing conventional military superiority, has not made a similar pledge.
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