ISLAMABAD: India and Pakistan exchanged lists of their nuclear assets on Wednesday as part of a bilateral pact that prohibits them from attacking each other’s nuclear facilities, state-run media reported.
The ‘Agreement on Prohibition of Attacks against Nuclear Installations and Facilities’ between the two countries was signed in December 1988. It requires that both sides inform each other of their nuclear installations and facilities on Jan. 1 each year. The two countries have been exchanging the lists since 1992.
“Accordingly, the list of nuclear installations and facilities in Pakistan was officially handed over to a representative of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported.
Accordingly, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs handed over the list of India’s nuclear installations and facilities to a representative of the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have fought two of three wars after independence from British rule in 1947 over the disputed former princely state of Kashmir. The first war was fought in 1947, the second in 1965, and a third, largely over what became Bangladesh, in 1971.
Both countries claim the disputed territory in full but control only parts of it. Tensions between the two countries escalated last year when India’s top court upheld a 2019 decision by New Delhi to scrap Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status.
India conducted its first nuclear test in 1974, with Pakistan carrying out its first test in 1988.
Pakistan, India exchange list of nuclear facilities
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Pakistan, India exchange list of nuclear facilities
- India and Pakistan are signatories to an agreement that bars them from attacking each other’s nuclear facilities
- Pakistan hands over list of nuclear facilities to Indian High Commission representative in Islamabad, says state media
Government hails joining Gaza peace board as ‘diplomatic success’ amid opposition criticism
- Ahsan Iqbal says Pakistan took the decision after consulting other Muslim nations
- Opposition objects to joining Trump-chaired forum without parliamentary consensus
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday described its decision to join a newly formed international body aimed at supporting peace efforts in Gaza as a “diplomatic success,” dismissing opposition criticism that the move was taken without parliamentary consensus.
The Gaza Board of Peace brings together participating states and international stakeholders seeking to support dialogue, stability and peace-related initiatives linked to the conflict in the Palestinian enclave.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif signed the forum’s charter a day earlier on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos.
Opposition lawmakers objected to the decision in parliament, saying the government joined the initiative without taking them into confidence or disclosing its terms.
“If Pakistan had not gone to the Board of Peace today, these honorable members would have been making the same forceful speeches that Pakistan has been isolated, that no one is engaging with Pakistan and asking why Pakistan was not included in such a major peace initiative,” Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said in a parliamentary address.
“If Pakistan has been given center stage today, enabling us to contribute to peace in Palestine and Gaza alongside our brotherly Islamic countries, then this is a major diplomatic success for Pakistan, one that we should welcome rather than standing aside,” he added.
Iqbal said Islamabad had taken the decision after consulting other Muslim nations and described the forum as part of an international initiative aimed at ending bloodshed in Gaza.
He added that the initiative had been welcomed by Palestinians, even as Pakistan’s decision to pursue it with other nations faced criticism at home.
Representatives of 19 countries signed the charter on Thursday alongside US President Donald Trump, who addressed the gathering but offered few details about the body’s mandate, how it would operate or how it might pursue conflict resolution efforts.
Pakistan and seven other Muslim countries said in a joint statement on Wednesday that they had accepted Trump’s invitation to join the board, expressing hope that it could contribute to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.
Chaired by Trump, the board is expected to include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Israel announced on Wednesday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would also be a member of the board.
