SPY EYES

India and Pakistan on Sunday exchanged a list of their nuclear installations under a two-decade-old pact, a statement said.

Exchange of nuclear lists is customary since 1992. But, for the last two decades both the countries were under a pact prohibiting attack on each other’s nuclear assets. The exchange of lists comes a week after the two sides held a two-day expert-level meeting on conventional and nuclear Confidence Building Measures (CBMs).

The “Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations between India and Pakistan,” was signed on December 31, 1988. Under the 1988 agreement, the nuclear-armed neighbours are required to submit the lists of all their respective nuclear installations and facilities — civilian and military — on January 1 every year and it came into force on January 27, 1991. This is the 21st consecutive exchange of such lists, the first one having taken place on January 1, 1992.

In accordance with the aforesaid agreement, a list of requisite facilities in Pakistan was given to the Indian High Commission official at the Foreign Office today at 11.30 PST. The Indian side also handed over its list to the Pakistan High Commission Official at the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi at 1200 hours IST.

The list, exchanged through diplomatic channels simultaneously in New Delhi and Islamabad, shows the installations and facilities covered under the pact, the External Affairs Ministry said here.

India and Pakistan also exchanged lists of prisoners in jails in both countries, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in Islamabad. The prisoners’ lists are exchanged twice a year.

With Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal a matter of growing global concern, India had, at the expert-level meeting held in Islamabad Dec 26 and 27 last year, pressed Pakistan to enunciate its nuclear doctrine and asked it to join global efforts for concluding the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT).

New Delhi had also politely spurned Pakistan’s proposal for bilateral cooperation on nuclear safety and peaceful uses of nuclear energy, saying it will have to wait till there is adequate trust and confidence between the two countries.

The Indian side was led at the talks on conventional and nuclear CBMs by MEA Joint Secretary (Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran) YK Sinha and Joint Secretary (Disarmament) DB Venkatesh Varma respectively. The Pakistani delegation was headed by Munawar Saeed Bhatti, additional secretary in Pakistan’s Foreign Office.

Truth Dive