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Pakistan, India to hold nuclear talks on May 25-26

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, May 2, IRNA -- Pakistan and India are set to hold nuclear 
talks later this month as part of confidence-building measures between
the nuclear-armed rival neighbors. 
Last month, New Delhi agreed to the May 25-26 date set for talks 
with Islamabad at the experts level, a move welcomed here for 
launching nuclear confidence-building measures. 
"These are very important talks and Pakistan looks forward to 
participating in them India," a Foreign Office statment said. 
Sources in Islamabad say that India has also conveyed to Islamabad
its readiness to have a meeting of the Committee on Drug Trafficking 
and Smuggling set on June 15 and 16. 
Dates for both meetings were proposed in pursuance of a "roadmap" 
outlined in the meeting of foreign secretaries of the two countries in
Islamabad on February 18. 
The venues of both events have not been finalized yet. 
Pakistan and India agreed in February on an aggressive roadmap 
for peace talks with the hope of putting their blood-stained modern 
history behind them and set up a series of high-level meetings on 
flashpoint issues like Kashmir, terrorism and nuclear weapons. 
The dialogue will culminate with a summit in August between the 
two nations` foreign ministers, an unimaginable breakthrough only 
two years after the troops from the atomic adversaries stood eyeball 
to eyeball on the brink of war. 
A series of mid-level meetings are expected to begin directly 
after the Indian elections, including one set in June to discuss ways 
of combatting drug trafficking and smuggling. 
Pakistan and India have been moving closer together since April 
last year, restoring ambassador-level diplomatic ties, and resuming 
bus, rail and air links. 
The agenda for talks at the foreign secretaries level held in 
February called for the two countries to set up eight groups to tackle
Kashmir, nuclear arms, terrorism, drugs and trade, among other issues.
Pakistan and India nearly went to war in 2002 following an attack 
on the Indian Parliament that New Delhi blamed on Kashmiri groups. 
Pakistan denied the charges. 
A war, which would have been the fourth between the nuclear-armed 
rivals, was averted after intense international mediation. 
Any nuclear exchange would likely have killed millions of people 
on both sides and led to a humanitarian disaster that would have 
sapped the resources of the world`s collective emergency response 
capability. 
TSH/LS/210