India, Pakistan hold nuclear weapons talks

Pakistan and India have started two days of talks aimed at agreeing on measures to build confidence about their nuclear and conventional…

Pakistan and India have started two days of talks aimed at agreeing on measures to build confidence about their nuclear and conventional arms programmes.

The talks in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, between foreign ministry experts are part of a cautious peace process relaunched under international pressure early this year.

The two sides will discuss proposals aimed at building mutual confidence about each other's nuclear arsenals to avoid any miscalculations and will try to reach an agreement to notify each other in advance of missile tests - a practice they already follow informally.

Analysts do not expect any major breakthroughs, however.

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On Monday, Pakistan objected to India raising Pakistan's plans to acquire conventional arms from the United States as an issue, given India's own arms-buying programme.

India said last week any US arms sales to Pakistan would affect its relations with the United States, and the slow-moving India-Pakistan peace process.

A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman called the Indian statement "disturbing" and said Pakistan's programme was "modest" compared with that of India, which was spending tens of billions of dollars to acquire sophisticated weapons from around the world.