India and Pakistan signed two agreements on security cooperation yesterday as their foreign ministers discussed a tentative peace process, but a breakthrough on their core dispute over Kashmir was not expected.
India's Natwar Singh and his Pakistani counterpart, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, said their talks were going well as officials signed pacts on advance warning of ballistic missile tests and on a hotline between their coast guards.
"All I can say is that the talks went off in a very cordial manner," Kasuri told reporters at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad, during a break in the discussions.
PHOTO: AP
"We have had very good talks. Now we are again going for talks," Singh said.
The neighbors have gone to war three times since independence in 1947 and nearly fought a fourth in 2002 before launching a peace process early last year.
The missile test warning deal was first struck during talks between Indian and Pakistani officials in New Delhi in August but was now being officially brought into force.
"The agreement entails that both countries provide each other advance notification of flight tests that it intends to undertake of any surface-to-surface ballistic missile," the two sides said in a statement.
"India has now handed over a draft memorandum of understanding on measures to reduce the risks of accidental or unauthorized use of nuclear weapons under the control of both countries," the statement said.
As well as the two security pacts, there is also a possibility of progress on the withdrawal of troops from a disputed Himalayan glacier and on a maritime border row, analysts said.
But a breakthrough on the main issue of contention, their decades-long dispute over the Himalayan region of Kashmir, was not likely, analysts from both sides have said.
"We shouldn't expect major breakthroughs but definitely we'll see some progress," Jamshed Ayaz, president of the Institute of Regional Studies, an Islamabad-based think-tank, said on Sunday.
Singh's visit follows a meeting between Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New York last month that ended without any major announcement or concrete initiatives, as many had expected.
Even before that meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, the neighbors exchanged barbs on Kashmir.
Both countries claim the region but it remains divided by a ceasefire line, the result of their first war over the territory soon after independence from Britain in 1947.
Tens of thousands have died in Indian Kashmir since 1989, when a Muslim separatist revolt against Indian rule erupted.
Despite differences over Kashmir, a ceasefire has held there since late 2003 and the two sides have launched a so-called composite dialogue on a range of issues, including Kashmir.
While little progress has been made on Kashmir, the two sides have reached agreement in several other areas including the restoration of diplomatic, sports and transport links, as well as on some trade and prisoner exchanges.
They have also discussed energy cooperation, in particular a US$7 billion gas pipeline from Iran, through Pakistan, to India.
But analysts say that project could be at risk in the wake of India's vote at the International Atomic Energy Agency's board meeting late last month. India joined the US in voting to refer Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest
RSS