Pakistan and India signed pacts yesterday to give advance notice of ballistic missile tests and to set up a hotline between their coastguards, as their foreign ministers reviewed a cautious peace process.
The two countries also agreed to hold Joint Economic Commission meetings for the first time in 16 years, Indian foreign secretary Shyam Saran told a news conference after the ministerial-level talks.
Visiting Indian Foreign Minister Natwar Singh held talks in a "cordial atmosphere" with Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri, later witnessing the signing of the deals, a Pakistani foreign ministry official said.
Singh and Kasuri were discussing the peace moves launched in early 2004 by India and Pakistan, who are aiming to patch up relations after more than half a century of bitterness.
The talks cover eight subjects including Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan.
The peace process has so far produced a number of largely symbolic steps, including a bus service across divided Kashmir and resumption of sporting ties, but progress has been sluggish on central issues such as Kashmir.
The missile test warning deal was first struck during talks between Indian and Pakistani officials in New Delhi in August but was now being officially brought into force.
The coastguard hotline deal comes in the context of frequent arrests by both India and Pakistan of each others' fishermen for straying into their respective territorial waters.
"The communication link will lead to early exchange of information between the two sides regarding apprehended fishermen who inadvertently stray into each other's territories," the statement said.
On Kashmir, Saran reiterated Indian position ruling out any change in the borders.
"We have said in the past that we are not able to really countenance any territorial changes, but we have said, short of that, whatever can be done to address the adverse human consequences ... we should address those negative consequences. "And I think that is precisely what we have been trying to do," he said.
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Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri (L) and his Indian counterpart Natwar Singh. (AFP)