India, Pak to renew nuclear accident pact

Senior officials of India and Pakistan on Tuesday ended their two-day talks in Islamabad by agreeing to consider renewing for another five years a pact on reducing nuclear accidents and to explore additional confidence-building measures (CBMs).

The Indian delegation, led by D B Venkatesh Varma, joint secretary (disarmament) in the external affairs ministry, held the sixth round of expert-level talks with the Pakistani side led by Munawar Saeed Bhatti, additional secretary in the foreign office.

"Both sides reviewed the implementation and strengthening of existing CBMs in the framework of Lahore MoU, and agreed to explore possibilities for mutually acceptable additional CBMs," said the statement.

One of outcomes of the meeting was that the two sides agreed to recommend to their foreign secretaries to extend the validity of the "agreement on reducing the risk from accidents relating to nuclear weapons" for another five years.