Pakistan and India on Tuesday agreed to move forward on proposals to extend the two vital agreements on “reducing the risk from accidents related to nuclear weapons” and “pre-notification of ballistic missile tests”, as they concluded their two-day talks here on Conventional and Nuclear Confidence Building Measures (CBMs). Senior officials of the two countries agreed to recommend to their foreign secretaries to extend the validity of the “Agreement on Pre-Notification of Flight Testing of Ballistic Missiles” by five years.
They also decided to make a recommendation to the foreign secretaries to extend the validity of another vital pact, “Agreement on Reducing the Risk from Accidents Relating to Nuclear Weapons” for five years. The current tenure of this agreement is set to end in February next year, said officials privy to the two-day consultations at the level of experts from the two sides.
“The two sides reviewed a range of existing nuclear and conventional CBMs and discussed proposals for additional measures in areas where the two countries could make forward movement,” an official said, seeking anonymity.
He said the nuclear neighbours also discussed the proposal to expand the ambit of advance notification of missiles tests and also include the cruise missiles test in it along with the ballistic missile.
Another official said there was no understanding during the senior officials’ meeting on conventional CBMs, such as removal of heavy weapons from the Line of Control (LoC) in divided Himalayan region of Kashmir along with other CBMs like the proposed agreement on advance notification of military exercises, return of citizens crossing the border inadvertently to their respective countries and also a proposed pact on averting any incidents at sea. Meanwhile, the Foreign Ministry said Pakistan had proposed moving heavy artillery away from the Line of Control. “Pakistan has proposed to India to move 120-millimetre guns some 30 kilometres (18 miles) away from the Line of Control,” foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.
