India and Pakistan today exchanged a list of their nuclear installations under a bilateral agreement that bars them from attacking each other's atomic facilities.
The two countries also exchanged, through diplomatic channels simultaneously at New Delhi and Islamabad, the lists of nationals (including civil prisoners and fishermen) of each country lodged in their respective jails.
The agreement pertaining to nuclear installations which was signed on December 31, 1988 and entered into force on January 27, 1991 entails that the two countries should inform each other of nuclear installations and facilities to be covered under the Agreement on January 1 every year.
External Affairs Ministry issued a statement which said the two countries exchanged the list of prisoners lodged in the jails of the other country consistent with the provisions of the Agreement on Consular Access between India and Pakistan.
The agreement on prisoners, which was signed on May 31, 2008, provides that a comprehensive list of nationals of each country lodged in other country's jails has to be exchanged twice each year, on January 1 and July 1 while the list of nuclear installations is exchanged only on January 1.
On the status of Kulbhushan Jadhav, a former navy officer
in Pakistan custody, Swarup said India has repeatedly sought consular access to him.
"Pakistan has a particular narrative regarding him. We believe the circumstances under which he was abducted in Iran remain very unclear. Those circumstances can be made clear once we have access to him.
"Pakistan by not giving access to him is in a way showing there is something to hide. So I think full clarity will come once we have accessibility to Jadhav," the spokesperson added.
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Asserting that the primary reason for the current state of Indo-Pak relations was continued terror from Pakistan, Swarup said sooner Pakistan stops supporting terrorism, the sooner bilateral ties can come back on track.
Maintaining that India has never shied away from talks, the Spokesperson said India has taken all the initiative -be it inviting Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi's swearing-in or visit by the External Affairs Minister last year when the two sides announced Comprehensive Bilateral Dialogue.
"so if anyone says we have shied away from the dialogue or don't want dialogue is completely off mark. But what have we got in return for these overtures? We have got repeated instances of attacks on our security forces and civillians...," he said.
Asked if there will be any bilateral talks with the Chinese side on the sidelines of HoA, Swarup said his understanding was that China was being represented at the Assistant Minister-level so it was not clear that whether they will seek a bilateral meeting.
