NEW DELHI/ISLAMABAD - Pakistan and India have exchanged the lists of their nuclear installations under a three-decade-old bilateral pact that bars them from attacking each other's atomic facilities in an event of war.


India and Pakistan on Monday exchanged the list of nuclear facilities through diplomatic channels simultaneously in New Delhi and Islamabad.


According to a statement issued by the Pakistani Foreign Office, the lists were handed over to the officers of the Pakistani and Indian High Commissions in their respective capitals.


The two countries have already set up a telephone hotline to prevent an accidental nuclear conflict.


The exchange was established under the agreement which was signed on December 31, 1988, and entered into force on January 27, 1991.


The accord calls on both countries to inform each other of their nuclear sites on January 1 every year.

This is the 27th consecutive exchange of such a list between the two countries. The lists have been exchanged since 1992.


Pakistan and India have routinely tested ballistic missiles since they first became nuclear capable in 1998 and 1974, respectively.


Neither of the neighbors has signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) or other international regulatory pacts that restrict developing or testing nuclear weapons.


India considers the NPT as discriminatory, while Pakistan has indicated that it will not join the international treaty until its neighbor does.

The two countries have already fought four wars, three of which were over Kashmir. The region has been the bone of contention between the nuclear neighbors since their partition and independence from Britain in 1947.