India, Pakistan sign nuke deal
2007-02-21 20:29
New Delhi - India and Pakistan signed a deal on Wednesday to reduce the risk of a nuclear arms accident in a show of co-operation and defiance against terror attacks that have killed 68 people from both countries.
The New Delhi signing ceremony took place in public after Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Kasuri, held an hour and 45 minutes of talks.
They repeatedly shook hands and smiled for photographers, pledging renewed commitment to their peace process.
Mukherjee said: "The holding of the joint commission meeting as scheduled is a reaffirmation of the commitment of both India and Pakistan to the dialogue process,".
Kasuri agreed that, after the firebombing, the talks were "another sign of increasing co-operation between Pakistan and India."
Exchange lists of facilities
Both sides were examining "co-operation in education, information, IT and telecom, health, agriculture, tourism and science," he said.
The train blasts "underlined the need of co-operation" in fighting terror, he added.
"You have also witnessed the signing this morning of the agreement between India and Pakistan on reducing the risk of accidents relating to nuclear weapons," said Mukherjee.
No details were immediately available of how the agreement would work, but the two sides already exchange lists of nuclear facilities at the start of every year.
Wednesday's meeting - following the train blasts which killed mainly Muslims travelling home to Pakistan at midnight on Sunday - had been scheduled to review the stop-go peace process.
Militant outfit
It had been put on hold for four months after 186 people died in Mumbai train bombings last July.
Meanwhile, detectives investigating the train inferno probed links to a Pakistan-based militant outfit.
The Times of India said a recorded telephone call made shortly after the blasts pointed to Lashkar-e-Taiba, the main Islamic group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir,.
India blamed the same rebel group for an attack on its parliament in December 2001 which almost pushed the two neighbours to war.