India and Pakistan sign pact on missile tests

In an attempt to give a fillip to the peace talks between the two countries, India and Pakistan, while deciding to continue with the composite dialogue process, today, agreed to sign a pact on the pre-notification on ballistic missile tests.

Pravda.ru said before, that Indian Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart, Riaz Mohammed Khan, were meeting for two days of talks at the Foreign Ministry in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad.

The agreement would make it mandatory for the two south Asian neighbours to inform each other before going in for experimental missile tests. The agreement on pre-notification of ballistic missile tests will be signed when external affairs minister K Natwar Singh meets his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri in the Pakistani capital from October 3-5 this year, Economic Times reports.

The proposed accord is being touted as the latest in the series of confidence-building measures between the two countries, and is expected to carry the peace process forward. “Both sides agree on the integrity of the composite dialogue...the third round of the composite dialogue will take place and, hopefully, it will start by the end of this year,” Pakistan foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan told newspersons in Islamabad after the conclusion of wide-ranging talks with his Indian counterpart Shyam Saran, who’s presently on a visit to Pakistan.