Plug terror flow first, India rebuts Pak plea for talks on Indus Waters Treaty

Drawing a firm line on the future course with Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said the Indus Waters Treaty will continue to remain in abeyance till cross-border terrorism is “irrevocably stopped”. He also said Islamabad must hand over wanted terrorists and vacate the illegally occupied territory in Jammu and Kashmir.

Jaishankar’s remarks came in response to a letter by Pakistan to re-engage with India on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT), which was put in abeyance on April 24, two days after the Pahalgam massacre in which 25 tourists and a local were killed by terrorists.

Sources said the government had a week ago received a letter from Pakistan’s Secretary in the Ministry of Water Resources, Syed Ali Murtaza, seeking to discuss the points India had raised over the past three years on the quantum of sharing of waters of the six rivers under the Indus river system. For now, there was no plan even to respond to Pakistan’s request, a source said.

Answering media queries on the sidelines of the opening of the Honduras Embassy, the minister said, “The Indus Waters Treaty is held in abeyance and will continue to remain so until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably stops cross-border terrorism.”

As per the IWT, both India and Pakistan have their designated Indus Commissioners who lead delegations for talks. In September last year, India had said there would be no more meetings of the Permanent Indus Commission (PIC) till a renegotiation of the IWT was done at the level of the two governments. The last meeting happened in Delhi in May 2022. Since January 2023, India has written four times to Pakistan to initiate talks on revising the treaty, but received no response.

The IWT, negotiated through the World Bank and inked in 1960, allocates the waters of the Sutlej, Beas and the Ravi for 100 per cent use in India (96 per cent of it is being used). The Indus, Jhelum and the Chenab are more than 80 per cent for use of Pakistan. On these, India can only use “run off the river” water to generate power and cannot store water beyond a certain limit that is mandated in the IWT. India can use water for drinking purposes and irrigation in J&K and Ladakh.

Jaishankar, asked about any bilateral talks with Pakistan, said dialogue could take place only on dismantling terror infrastructure and vacating Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

About the cessation of military operations by both nations after Operation Sindoor, Jaishankar said it was “clear who wanted the firing to shop”. On US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate, the minister said, “Our relations and dealings with Pakistan will be strictly bilateral. That’s a national consensus for years and there is no change in that.”