WASHINGTON, March 17 (UPI) -- The leaders of India and Pakistan have won a peace award for their efforts to improve relations between the two South Asia nuclear neighbors.
The "Common Ground International Diplomacy Award," is given by the Search for Common Ground, a non-profit and non-governmental organization based in Vienna, Austria.
The awards are presented annually to recognize accomplishments in conflict resolution, community building, and peacemaking.
"The recipients have made important contributions toward bridging the divides between people, finding solutions to seemingly intractable problems, and providing hope where there often was none," the group said while announcing the awards for Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.
The award presentation ceremony will be held at the Austrian Embassy in Washington on March 18 and Indian and Pakistani ambassadors will receive the awards on behalf of their leaders.
At a historic meeting last month in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad the two leaders decided to set aside more than 50 years of enmity and resolve their differences through dialogue. The two countries have already fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947. Both possess nuclear weapons.
