India, Pakistan to sign trust-boosting accords
Afp, New Delhi
Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan will next week sign accords to improve trust between their militaries including one giving advance warning of ballistic missile tests, newspaper reports said yesterday. The agreements are expected to be signed during a four-day visit by Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh to Pakistan starting today. Another accord to be signed would establish a hotline between the coast guards of the two countries. These agreements come after New Delhi and Islamabad also recently agreed to set up a hotline to stop an accidental nuclear exchange. Singh, making his second trip to Pakistan since February, would also push for an extradition treaty, reports in The Hindu and The Times of India newspapers said. India says many of its fugitives are in Pakistan, a charge Islamabad denies. The missile test warning deal was struck during talks between Indian and Pakistani officials in New Delhi in August during the second round of peace talks held since the formal peace process began in January 2004. The talks cover eight subjects including the Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan and trigger of two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.
|