N-capabilities factor for regional stability: India, Pak

Announcing a series of nuclear confidence-building measures today so as to make increasingly transparent their respective nuclear doctrines, the two sides agreed to establish a dedicated and secure hotline between the two Foreign Secretaries 8216;8216;to prevent misunderstandings and reduce risks relevant to nuclear issues.8217;8217;

An existing hotline between the two Directors-General of Military Operations DGMOs, which has functioned every Tuesday through the most tense conditions, including during the Kargil war, will be 8216;8216;upgraded, dedicated and secured.8217;8217;

The weekend talks are the first explication of the MoU signed in Lahore in 1999, when both sides, in the wake of their nuclear tests the previous year, sought to stabilise their newly nuclearised neighbourhood.

The real reason behind establishing a hotline between the two Foreign Secretaries is to prevent the kind of 8216;8216;misunderstandings8217;8217; that took place a few weeks ago, when Islamabad, deliberately or otherwise, partially interpreted External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh8217;s statement about the Shimla agreement constituting the bedrock of the bilateral relationship.

Singh will now meet his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri in China tomorrow, on the margins of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue, later in July on the sidelines of the SAARC ministerial and finally in August for a bilateral meeting. A meeting on the Baglihar dam project between the two water secretaries is, meanwhile, beginning in New Delhi tomorrow.

The Indian side on the nuclear talks, led by additional secretary in the MEA Sheel Kant Sharma, also handed over a draft on the pre-notification of flight testing of missiles.

Even though both sides routinely warn each other a few days before they are about to test a missile, the Pakistani side has often not given exact details about the time of the test and the flight path the missile will take so as to keep merchant ships out of danger.

Interestingly, both India and Pakistan have ever since their nuclear tests rejected the international community8217;s linkage between 8216;8216;nuclear flashpoint8217;8217; and Kashmir.

Indeed, this first dialogue was said to have been conducted not only in a remarkable degree of camaraderie, but conscious of their self-conferred status as nuclear weapon powers, both sides acknowledged in the joint statement that there was a 8216;8216;need to promote a stable environment of peace and security between the two countries8217;8217; and work towards 8216;8216;strategic stability.8217;8217;

Under the circumstances, both reaffirmed their unilateral moratorium on conducting further nuclear explosions, unless extraordinary events jeopardize their respective interests.

They also committed themselves to measures to reduce the risk of accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons under their respective controls. Pakistan8217;s spokesman Masood Khan, who is in Delhi as part of the talks team, described the discussions in voluble terms. In contrast, there was complete silence from the Indian side.

8216;8216;There is progress. There has been a thaw. There has been an understanding and movement towards dialogue and confidence-building and constructive and consistent engagement,8217;8217; Khan said.

He did not rule out the fact that India8217;s proposal of 8216;8216;no first use8217;8217;, that constitutes the fundamental part of its nuclear doctrine, was discussed.

8216;8216;India says no first use. We have been saying no use of force. At one point, we talked about no war pact or non-aggression pact. But the spirit right now in the nuclear realm is to transcend bizarre rhetoric and do something substantive and concrete. That is the intent of the delegations that met here,8217;8217; Khan added.

But he could not, yet again, resist making comments on the 8216;8216;degree of uncertainty8217;8217; that had befallen the dialogue process 8216;8216;due to the political transition in India.8217;8217;