Latest news with #IndusWatersTreaty
Time of India
31 minutes ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Shehbaz Sharif raises Indus Waters Treaty abeyance at Tajikistan forum
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday took dispute with India over the Indus Waters Treaty to a forum on glaciers in Tajikistan, attempting to internationalise the bilateral pact. Addressing the International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, he said the world must recognise that water transcends political boundaries, connects communities and sustains ecosystems and cultures, demanding global action over India's decision to put the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance. "We are now witnessing an alarming new low, the weaponisation of water. India's unilateral and illegal decision to hold in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty which governs the sharing of the Indus basin's water is deeply regrettable," Sharif said, adding that lives of millions of Pakistanis must not be held hostage to "narrow political gains". "Our waters and our glaciers... bind us in a shared destiny. Let us protect and preserve nature's precious bounties for our planet and our peoples," he further said. The comments came a day after India's external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, "I would like to underline that any bilateral discussion on Jammu and Kashmir will only be about the vacation of illegally occupied Indian territory by Pakistan. As for the Indus Waters Treaty, it will remain in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism. As the prime minister has said, and I would like to repeat his words, terror and talks cannot go together." Live Events Pakistan chose Tajikistan for raising the issue even as it is a strategic partner of India in Central Asia and had been involved in a trans-border water dispute with a neighbour in the past. Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan's decades-long border dispute, particularly over water access and land, has resulted in several violent clashes. An agreement in March this year resolved the final contested border, promising to end the long-standing tensions. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have a water treaty that addresses the management and protection of water resources, particularly in the Syr Darya and Amu Darya river basins. The treaty is part of a broader effort to manage shared water resources in Central Asia, including cooperation with other countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - India and Pakistan's ‘water and blood' wars could spark global catastrophe
'Pakistan has violated the spirit of the treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India,' said India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Parvathaneni Harish, last Friday, referring to the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960. India suspended the World Bank-brokered agreement the day after gunmen killed 26 mostly Hindu tourists at Pahalgam in Indian-controlled Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan also claims Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi blames Islamabad for harboring militants who staged the April 22 attack, as Harish noted in his remarks at a U.N. Security Council Arria-formula meeting titled 'Protecting Water in Armed Conflict — Protecting Civilian Lives.' Pakistan has denied responsibility. By India's count, Pakistani terror attacks have taken more than 20,000 Indian lives in the past four decades. 'It is against this backdrop that India has finally announced that the treaty will be in abeyance until Pakistan, which is a global epicenter of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border terrorism,' Harish announced. 'It is clear that it is Pakistan which remains in violation of the Indus Waters Treaty.' India's action is the first-ever suspension of the pact. The treaty, 'a rare beacon of cooperation between India and Pakistan,' allocates waters in the Indus basin. India got control of the eastern rivers of Ravi, Beas and Sutlej. Pakistan controls western rivers, the Chenab, the Indus and Jhelum. The treaty is generous to Pakistan, allocating to it about 70 percent of the total water carried by the Indus River System. Water stoppages pose a dire threat to Pakistan. Rivers covered by the treaty provide almost 80 percent of its water for drinking and irrigation. 'Water is a vital national interest of Pakistan, a lifeline for its 240 million people and its availability will be safeguarded at all costs,' a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson said on April 25. 'Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an act of war and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of national power,' the Pakistani spokesperson continued. 'Complete spectrum of national power' is a significant phrase, given that Pakistan is a nuclear weapons state. Nuclear war is always on the menu. India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7 against known terrorist sites in Pakistan, and for four days the two nuclear-armed powers hit each other with air, drone and missile strikes. After India targeted the Nur Khan and Mushaf airbases, both close to Pakistan's nuclear weapons installations, an alarmed Trump administration intervened and brokered a ceasefire. Ishaq Dar, Pakistan's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, told CNN on May 12 that the cease-fire could fall apart 'if the water issue is not resolved.' India currently does not have the ability to deny water to Pakistan, because its upstream dams have only limited storage capacity. The most New Delhi can do with the current infrastructure is affect the timing of water flows to Pakistan. New Delhi's goal is to prevent any water from leaving India, however, and the country is planning to improve its system of dams so that they do not have to release water into Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has maintained a hardline stance. 'Water and blood cannot flow together,' Modi has said. 'Terror and talks cannot happen at the same time. Terror and trade cannot happen simultaneously.' Most analysts believe that Pakistan's forces got the better of India in the four days of fighting. Whether that is true or not, Pakistan's army came out ahead at home. 'Rather than deterring its rival, India precipitated a retaliation that ended up burnishing the Pakistani military's reputation and boosting its domestic popularity,' wrote Georgetown University's Aqil Shah in Foreign Affairs. So expect more hostilities. Shah's piece is titled 'The Next War Between India and Pakistan.' There will be one for sure. Operation Sindoor, Modi said, had 'drawn a new line under the fight against terrorism.' 'This is a new phase, a new normal. If there is a terror attack on India, we will give a jaw-breaking response.' Modi has recently said that Operation Sindoor has not yet ended. The conflict could spread to include another nuclear weapons state. Beijing, for instance, could intervene by blocking water flows into India. The headwaters of the Indus are in China. So are the headwaters of the Brahmaputra. 'This could well overshadow any previous, containable conflict between India and Pakistan,' writes Gregory Copley, the president of the International Strategic Studies Association and editor-in-chief of Defense and Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, on the next war. 'It could be the big one.' Gordon G. Chang is the author of 'Plan Red: China's Project to Destroy America' and 'The Coming Collapse of China.'. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Day after Asim Munir, Pakistan PM rakes up Indus Waters Treaty abeyance with 'red line' threat
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said that Pakistan would not allow India 'to cross the red line' by holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, PTI news agency reported, citing local media. Speaking at a three-day International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, Shehbaz Sharif said that India's move is deeply regrettable. 'India's unilateral and illegal decision to hold in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty, which governs the sharing of the Indus Basin's water, is deeply regrettable,' Pakistani news portal Dawn quoted Sharif as saying. 'Millions of lives must not be held hostage to narrow political gains, and Pakistan will not allow this. We will never allow the red line to be crossed,' the prime minister said. Also Read | 'India can no longer act on goodwill alone': Shashi Tharoor on Indus Waters Treaty suspension His remarks came a day after Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir issued a similar warning to India, saying that 'water is Pakistan's red line' and that Islamabad would not allow any compromise. India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty in April, following the Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 people were killed. New Delhi has maintained that the treaty will remain in abeyance until Pakistan stops sponsoring terrorism. Brokered by the World Bank, the 1960 treaty defines a mechanism for water sharing and information exchange between the two nuclear-armed neighbour nations for the use of the Indus River water and its five tributaries Sutlej, Beas, Ravi, Jhelum, and Chenab. Also Read | Indus Waters Treaty 'badly negotiated', says PM Modi in Gujarat; suspension making Pak 'feel the heat' Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asserted that Pakistan will not get water from India's rivers and that "playing with the blood of Indians" will cost Islamabad. "Pakistan will not get a single drop of water that belongs to India. Playing with the blood of Indians will cost Pakistan dearly. This is India's resolve, and no one in the world can deter us from this commitment," Modi has said. India has also accused Pakistan of spreading disinformation over the Indus Water Treaty and reiterated its commitment to responsible water management even amid persistent cross-border terrorism. Also Read | Pak has violated spirit of Indus Water Treaty by inflicting three wars, thousands of terror attacks: India tells UN 'Pakistan has violated the spirit of the treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India. In the last four decades, more than 20,000 Indian lives have been lost in terror attacks, the most recent of which was a dastardly targeted terror attack on tourists in Pahalgam last month. India has shown extraordinary patience and magnanimity throughout this period,' India's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Parvathaneni Harish said last week. (Inputs from PTI)
The Print
4 hours ago
- Politics
- The Print
Pak becomes signatory to Hong Kong-based International Organisation for Mediation
Dar, addressing the ceremony, appreciated the Chinese leadership for its wisdom in developing and consistently leading efforts in establishing the IOMed and fostering a global community with a shared future, the statement added. 'Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, today signed, on behalf of Pakistan, the Convention on the establishment of International Organisation for Mediation (IOMed) in Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of People's Republic of China,' the Foreign Office said in a statement. Islamabad, May 30 (PTI) Pakistan on Friday became a signatory to the Hong Kong-based International Organisation for Mediation, a Chinese initiative to promote its international standing. He added that the creation of IOMed underscores the indispensability and significance of multilateralism as the centrepiece for international peace, stability, and development. 'IOMeD also offers new opportunities and fresh hopes to build a more inclusive, more just and more equitable world. As one of the founding members of IOMed, Pakistan would continue to be an active voice in this noble mission,' the statement quoted him as saying. The deputy PM underlined Pakistan's strong commitment to the promotion of peace and security as well as development and elaborated on the critical importance of advancing and preserving multilateralism. In the speech, Dar also accused India of violating international law through its 'acts of aggression against Pakistan and its unlawful holding in abeyance of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT)'. Dar called for the resolution of the longstanding Jammu and Kashmir dispute under the UN Security Council resolutions. Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after the Pahalgam terror attack in which 26 people were killed, with India carrying out precision strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early hours of May 7. Pakistan attempted to attack Indian military bases on May 8, 9, and 10. The Indian side responded strongly to the Pakistani actions. The on-ground hostilities ended with an understanding of stopping the military actions following talks between the directors general of military operations of both sides on May 10. India, soon after the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, announced abeyance of the IWT among other punitive measures. The IWT was signed in 1960 by the two countries to address the water dispute between them and to share the waters of the six main rivers of the Indus basin. The Foreign Office said that the idea for the establishment of the IOMed was one of the key outcomes of the 2nd Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing in April 2019. China initiated discussions for the establishment of IOMed in 2021, and invited Pakistan to join negotiations as one of its founding members. It further stated that the organisation is open to all countries; is based on respect for the sovereignty, core interests and legitimate concerns of every country; aims to promote dialogue and trust between parties concerned based on equality; and desires inclusion of various legal systems, and their mediators. Dar in a message on X stated that he also met 'with my Dear Friend H. E. Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Hong Kong within a span of 10 days'. 'Congratulated him on successful signing ceremony of the Convention establishing International Organisation for Mediation (IOMed), a groundbreaking initiative by China with transformational impact,' he said. He further said: 'The meeting was especially delightful as we reviewed with satisfaction the progress made since our last meeting. More milestones to follow!' Separately, Dar met with Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee and congratulated him on the successful establishment of IOMed while highlighting Hong Kong's unique role as a global hub linking East and West and its growing significance in international mediation. PTI SH GSP GSP This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
The Print
5 hours ago
- Politics
- The Print
Pak PM Sharif rakes up India's abeyance of Indus Water Treaty at international platform
'India's unilateral and illegal decision to hold in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty, which governs the sharing of the Indus Basin's water, is deeply regrettable,' Dawn reported quoting Sharif. Sharif was addressing a three-day International Conference on Glaciers' Preservation in Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe when he raked up the issue of India-Pakistan bilateral Indus Water Treaty (IWT). Islamabad, May 30 (PTI) Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday rejected the 'weaponisation of water' and warned that Pakistan would not allow India to cross the red line by holding the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance and endangering millions of lives for narrow political gains. 'Millions of lives must not be held hostage to narrow political gains, and Pakistan will not allow this. We will never allow the red line to be crossed,' the prime minister told the conference attended by over 2,500 delegates from 80 UN member states and 70 international organisations. The event is being hosted by the Tajikistan government in collaboration with the United Nations, UNESCO, World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), the Asian Development Bank, and other key partners as a historic moment for climate ambition, glacier preservation, and international cooperation. Sharif's remarks came after India, soon after the April 22 terrorist attack in Pahalgam, announced abeyance of the IWT among other punitive measures. The IWT was signed in 1960 by the two countries to address the water dispute between them and to share the waters of the six main rivers of the Indus basin. According to Dawn, Sharif also touched upon all relevant issues, including glacial preservation, Pakistan's climate vulnerability, the 2022 floods in Pakistan, global climate action and responsibility, scientific projections on glacial melt, weaponisation of water and call to protect nature and humanity's shared destiny. 'The world today bears fresh scars from the use of conventional weapons in Gaza that have left deep wounds. As if that were not enough, we are now witnessing an alarming new low—the weaponisation of water,' the prime minister observed. He added that Pakistan, being home to over 13,000 glaciers, was the most concerned as glaciers contributed nearly half of the annual flows in the Indus river system — 'the lifeline of our civilisation, culture and economy'. 'The five great rivers that shape our geographical landscape—Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, and Sutlej—all depend on the stability of glacial systems. This makes Pakistan one of the most vulnerable countries to any climatic changes that impact glaciers,' he continued. He told the gathering that Pakistan had faced the peril of glacial melt in the form of devastating floods in 2022 that destroyed millions of acres of standing crops, thousands of houses as well as infrastructure — despite the country contributing only less than half a per cent of the total world's emissions and yet being one of the 10 most vulnerable countries. PTI SH NPK NPK This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
