India, Pakistan in 'cordial' talks
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India's Singh, left, opens talks with Pakistani counterpart Jilani (right).
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- The first formal peace talks between India and Pakistan in more than two years have opened in Islamabad, with "all issues" -- including the disputed region of Kashmir -- on the table.
The three-day session was "being undertaken to structure the dialogue, make it more predictable," Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan told reporters in Islamabad Monday.
"Right now what you have is the political will of President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee behind these talks," Khan said. "There's a new momentum. That momentum must be maintained."
In a statement released in New Delhi, the Indian government said it was satisfied with the talks so far.
And in an apparent goodwill gesture, the government announced that it was releasing and repatriating four Pakistanis detained in the western state of Gujurat and four Pakistani boys detained at the Faridkot Juvenile Detention Center in Punjab. All eight will be released Tuesday.
Khan said the talks began in a "cordial and constructive" atmosphere.
"We are resuming our composite dialogue, and we shall look at all issues between India and Pakistan, including Jammu and Kashmir," he said.
The meeting between foreign ministry officials has been dubbed "talks about talks" and delegates are expected to formulate an agenda for further discussions over the coming months.
The nuclear rivals have already fought two of their three wars over Kashmir and human rights organizations estimate more than 60,000 people have been killed in violence there since a militant insurgency began there 15 years ago.
Middle-ranking bureaucrats from the two countries' foreign ministries are meeting to pave the way for a meeting on Wednesday between the two foreign secretaries, the highest-ranking bureaucrats in the rival ministries.
Pakistani President Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Vajpayee agreed to restart the peace process during a groundbreaking meeting in January.
Musharraf pledged that he would not allow Pakistan to be used as a base for terrorist activity at the talks, which marked a sea change in decades of bitter rivalry between the foes.
"Ladies and gentlemen, history has been made," Musharraf said last month when announcing a breakthrough in relations with its long-time adversary.
For more than half a century, since independence from Britain, the South Asian neighbors have been fighting over Kashmir, the mountainous territory with a Muslim majority claimed by both countries.
There have been two full-scale wars, one in 1947 and one in 1965, followed by decades of endless exchanges of fire across the Line Of Control which divides Kashmir into Indian and Pakistani sections. China also controls a portion of the region.
In recent years, the territory has been wracked by a bloody insurgency and there were fears the two countries were on the brink of full-scale war during a tense standoff and military build up sparked by a militant attack on Parliament in New Delhi in December 2001.
But in late 2003, tensions began to ease and a two-month-old cease-fire between their two armies along the Line of Control has already helped to improve the atmosphere.
Khan said the current climate between the two countries was an "environment that could kickstart this dialogue."
The last peace talks between the two countries were held in July 2001 in Agra, India. They fell apart after nine hours of intensive negotiations between Indian Vajpayee and Musharraf that yielded no joint declaration, just a statement of intent for peace and prosperity in the region for the future.
The summit floundered on the old chestnut -- Kashmir -- one of the last remnants from the Cold War era.
