India, Pak exchange 27th list of nuke installations

India and Pakistan on Monday exchanged, through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, a list of their nuclear installations and facilities for the 27th consecutive year, a statement said.

The exchange was done under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations between India and Pakistan, according to a Ministry of External Affairs statement.

The Agreement, which was signed on December 31, 1988, entered into force on January 27, 1991. It provides, inter alia, that the two countries inform each other of nuclear installations and facilities to be covered under the Agreement on the first of January of every calendar year.

This is the twenty seventh consecutive exchange of such a

list between the two countries, the first one having taken place on January 1, 1992. The exchange comes in the backdrop of the furore over the recent meeting of former Indian naval officer Kulbhushan Jadhav, is on a death row in Pakistan over charges of terrorism and espionage for India’s intelligence agency - Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), with his family members.

While India has accused Pakistan of disrespecting the cultural and religious sensibilties of the wife and the mother of Jadhav, Islamabad holds that the procedure followed for the meeting was in consideration of security measures.