No plans for talks with Pakistan on suspended Indus treaty: India

Hindustan Times

15-05-2025

India has no plans to hold talks with Pakistani authorities on the Indus Waters Treaty, which will remain suspended, two people familiar with the matter said on Thursday in the wake of a letter from the Pakistani side seeking a review of the matter.
And India will continue to take independent actions on the Indus rivers on its side based on professional assessments of the country's needs by its engineers and is unlikely to respond to Pakistan's offer for talks on the now-suspended water-sharing treaty, a third person said.
Holding the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in abeyance was among a raft of punitive measures announced by the Cabinet Committee on Security a day after the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 that killed 26 civilians. Even after India and Pakistan reached an understanding on stopping military actions on May 10 following four days of strikes and counterstrikes, Indian officials made it clear the punitive measures would remain in force.
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After Debashree Mukherjee, secretary in the Jal Shakti ministry, conveyed the decision on the Indus Waters Treaty to Pakistan's secretary for water resources, Syed Ali Murtaza, in an official letter despatched on April 24, the Pakistani side sent a response that laid out its position. Murtaza is understood to have said in the response that Pakistan considers India's decision to hold the treaty in abeyance as unilateral and a violation of the provisions of the pact, which doesn't allow for the exit of a party. The response is believed to have come in before the launch of Operation Sindoor on May 7.
The Indian side has no plans to engage with Pakistan on the Indus Waters Treaty despite the receipt of the response from the Pakistani side and this status will continue till Pakistan stops backing cross-border terrorism, the two people cited above said on condition of anonymity.
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'India's position was clearly outlined by the foreign secretary at the media briefing on April 23 when he said the Indus Waters Treaty will be held in abeyance 'until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism',' one of the two people cited in the first instance said.
Since suspending the Indus Waters Treaty on April 23, India has held back all gauge and discharge data of the rivers from Pakistan's Indus commissionerate , which it historically shared under the pact, according to the third person
'These inputs are used by the neighbouring country to verify if India has adhered to the treaty but the treaty is now under suspension, which we have already intimated to Pakistan,' the third person said, confirming India is in receipt of a communication sent by Pakistan more than a week ago, in which it offered to start negotiations to revive the treaty.
In its letter, Pakistan urged India to nominate representatives to participate in proposed negotiations on the treaty, the official said, adding that India is unlikely to respond to it as an official communication on India's reasons for suspending the treaty had already been sent last month.
This position was also reiterated by external affairs minister S Jaishankar during a brief interaction with TV channels on the margins of an event to mark the opening of the embassy of Honduras in New Delhi on Thursday. Jaishankar said the treaty will continue to in abeyance 'until cross-border terrorism by Pakistan is credibly and irrevocably stopped', and that India is willing to hold talks with Pakistan only on the issue of terrorism.
The people further noted that the Pakistani side had virtually rendered the treaty dysfunctional by routinely objecting to India's plans to build dams and hydropower plants and by not dealing with disputes in keeping with the methods laid down in the pact.
'Several provisions of the treaty signed in 1960 are obsolete because of developments and advances in the design and engineering of dams and hydropower projects but the Pakistani side has adopted a negative and obstructionist attitude by objecting to or questioning technical aspects of Indian projects with the intention of delaying them,' the second person said.
The Indian side has sent formal notices to Pakistan on four occasions since January 2023 seeking the review and modification of the treaty through government-to-government negotiations as outlined in Article XII (3) of the pact, but the Pakistani side has sought to stall this by contending that the negotiations should be handled by the Indus Waters Commissioners of the two countries, the people said.
In August 2024, India had served a formal notice on Pakistan for the review and modification of the treaty, largely because of Islamabad's intransigent approach towards handling disputes related to cross-border rivers. This notice was served under Article XII (3) of the treaty, which states that provisions of the pact may be modified by a duly ratified treaty concluded between the two governments.
The people also said the role of the World Bank, which had brokered the treaty in 1960, is limited to appointing either a neutral expert or a court of arbitration for deciding on disputes related to cross-border rivers, and it cannot decide on larger issues such as keeping the pact in abeyance or proposed negotiations to amend the pact.
The Indus Waters Treaty has not been amended since it was signed in Karachi on September 19, 1960, by then Pakistan president Mohammad Ayub Khan, then Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and WAB Illif of the World Bank.
At the time of independence in 1947, the India-Pakistan boundary was drawn across the Indus Basin, leaving Pakistan as the lower riparian state. The Indus Waters Treaty allocated the western rivers – Indus, Jhelum, Chenab – to Pakistan, and the eastern rivers – Ravi, Beas and Sutlej – to India. It allowed each country certain uses on the rivers allocated to the other.
On May 5, India released water to the Indus basin 'outside the scope of treaty' to maintain safety of Indian dams, a second official said. Waters from the Baglihar and Salal dams on the Chenab river in the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir were released as per professional assessments, a fourth official said
Under the treaty's rules, India is allowed to carry out flushing operations only in the month of August but the two dams were flushed early this month based on safety requirements, according to this person.
India will not share surplus/deficit flow data on the Indus rivers from July 1 to October 10 — mandatory under the pact — as there are no plans to resume communications between the Indus commissioners, the fourth official said.
Since the treaty was kept in abeyance, India has not been transferring district and tehsil (sub-district)-level irrigated-crop area statistics for the western rivers for the ensuing kharif (monsoon crop) season, which India was required to do under the treaty.
If India releases water during what are expected to be heavy monsoon months this summer, Pakistan could witness large-scale flooding, experts say.
'The flushing of Baglihar and Salal dam gates didn't have a very big impact downstream in Pakistan just yet, but there could be serious consequences in the coming months. India is well within its rights to suspend the treaty because of the disadvantages it was creating for India,' said Shashi Shekhar, former Union water resources secretary.
On April 23, Union Jal Shakti minister CR Paatil had said India won't give a drop of water' to Pakistan, while PM Narendra Modi has said 'water and blood can't flow together'.
Baglihar is a 900 MW hydropower project with a reservoir capacity of 475 million cubic metres. Electricity produced from its turbines feeds the grid in Haryana, which purchases the power through two distributors — Dakshin Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam and Uttar Haryana Bijli Vitran Nigam.
Nearly 80% of irrigated land in Pakistan's breadbasket, including Punjab, depends on water from the Indus river system, which is also important for drinking and power.
India is set to expedite work on six dams in the Kashmir region. These include Kishenganga, Ratle, Miyar Nallah, Lower Kalnai and Pakal Dul power projects aside from the Tulbul navigation project.