Manmohan Singh

The South Asian neighbors, who held nuclear tests two weeks apart in 1998 and have come close to war twice since, said they wanted to "promote a stable environment of peace and security."

The hotline will link the top civil servants in their foreign ministries, said a joint statement at the end of the two countries' first talks on nuclear risks since the 1998 atomic tests.

India and Pakistan said neither country would conduct another nuclear test "unless, in exercise of national sovereignty, it decides that extraordinary events have jeopardized its supreme interests."

Reconciliation efforts launched between Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and former Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee are continuing under India's new prime minister, Manmohan Singh, said Pakistan's foreign office spokesman Masood Khan.

The Japan Times Weekly: June 26, 2004
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