India - Pak N-lists

·         On January 1, 2007 for the 17th consecutive year, India and Pakistan exchanged lists of nuclear installations and facilities covered under the Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities between India and Pakistan.

·         The main objective of the Indo-Pak agreement is to commit both countries from taking “any action aimed at causing destruction of, or damage to, any nuclear installation or facility in other country”.

·         This agreement was signed on December 31, 1988, and put into force on January 27, 1991.

·         The first such exchange of lists took place on January 1, 1992.

·         Under the agreement, the two countries, on January 1 every year, are to inform each other of nuclear installations and facilities. These are defined as nuclear power and research reactors, fuel fabrication, uranium enrichment, isotopes separation and reprocessing facilities. These also include any other installations with fresh or irradiated nuclear fuel and materials in any form and establishments storing significant quantities of radio-active materials. The longitudes and latitudes of the nuclear facilities are given in the exchanged lists.

·         Two Indo-Pak bilateral documents have withstood the vagaries of time and ups and downs in their ties, the 1960 Indus Water Treaty and the 1988 Agreement on the Prohibition of Attack against Nuclear Installations and Facilities.

·         The latter is a unique document as it is the only such bilateral pact between two hostile countries.

·         The two nuclear-armed neighbours also share information under the 1999 memorandum of understanding to prevent accidental or unauthorised use of nuclear weapons.

·         The MoU obligates them to set up communication mechanisms to enable early notification to the other of nuclear accidents.