Signalling a further easing of tensions between India and Pakistan, senior army commanders from both sides are expected to begin using a hotline to discuss military de-escalation on their borders, an Indian government minister said.
"When the need arises, the two militaries can engage in dialogue through existing established channels so that the de-escalatory process is handled properly," Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said in an interview published Wednesday in the Indian Express newspaper.
The newspaper said the minister singled out a weekly telephone hotline contact between the rival commanders as one of the "established channels" which he said could soon be brought into play.
The hotline, set up in 1997, is currently used at noon every Tuesday between the directors-general of military operations of the two sides, during which they are meant to try to defuse any potentially critical situations.
But since a flare-up of tension on the borders sparked by an attack in December on India's parliament blamed on Pakistan-based militants, the communication has comprised little more than mumbled exchanges, military sources said.
"The two army commanders spoke to each other yesterday (Tuesday)," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP.
"But given the present circumstances, there was only an exchange of pleasantries and no dialogue," he added.
Without quoting a source, the newspaper also said that Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf had given his word to Washington that he "will also shut down 60-70 (militant training) camps" in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
New Delhi has said it will de-mobilise its troops and resume talks with Islamabad only after Pakistan stops what it calls "cross-border terrorism" and dismantles militants' training infrastructure in Pakistan-Kashmir.
Infiltration of Islamic militants into Indian-Kashmir is at the heart of the current stand-off between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals, which has seen both sides mobilise about one million troops on their common borders, edging to the brink of war late last month.
India earlier this month lifted a ban on Pakistani flights into India imposed after the parliament attack, acknowledging that fewer Islamic rebels were crossing into its zone of Kashmir from Pakistani territory.
It also recalled its warships from forward attack positions off Pakistan and announced it was appointing a new high commissioner (ambassador) to Islamabad.
Pakistan has said the measures are not substantive enough and has demanded that India begins withdrawing troops from the international border and the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border separating the two countries in disputed Kashmir.
India has said it may withdraw troops from the international border once it sees signs that training camps in Pakistan-Kashmir have been dismantled, but its soldiers will remain along the LoC at least until state elections are held in Kashmir in October.
(China Daily June 19, 2002)
