6.1.12

India, Pak swap lists of nuke sites

India and Pakistan on Sunday exchanged through diplomatic channels the list of nuclear installations and facilities covered under the two-decade pact called Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations between arch rivals India and Pakistan. The agreement, which was signed in 1988 and entered into force three years later, provides that the two countries inform each other of nuclear installations and facilities to be covered under the pact on the first of January of every calendar year. This was the 21st consecutive exchange of such lists between the two countries, the first one having taken place on January 1, 1992. This time though 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). With Pakistan's nuclear arsenal a matter of growing global concern, India had — at the expert-level meeting held in Islamabad December 26 and 27, 2011 — pressed Pakistan to enunciate its nuclear doctrine and asked it to join global efforts for concluding the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT). India also did not show much enthusiasm for Pakistan's proposal for bilateral cooperation on nuclear safety and peaceful uses of nuclear energy maintaining that the two countries need to first establish adequate trust and confidence between them.

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