Pakistan dismantled goodwill behind Indus Water Treaty, says India’s US envoy

WASHINGTON, AUGUST: India’s Ambassador to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, has said Pakistan spent decades eroding the goodwill and friendship that formed the foundation of the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), asserting that India’s decision to keep the treaty in abeyance merely recognised a reality created by Pakistan’s own conduct.

In an article published in Newsweek magazine, Kwatra said the treaty, signed in 1960, was concluded in a spirit of goodwill and friendship, but Pakistan consistently undermined that spirit through wars, cross-border terrorism and obstruction of India’s legitimate rights under the agreement.

Referring to India’s decision to place the treaty in abeyance following the April 2025 Pahalgam terror attack, in which 26 people, mostly tourists, were killed, he said the move acknowledged what Pakistan had already destroyed through its actions over several decades.

Kwatra noted that the treaty allocated about 80 per cent of the Indus basin waters to Pakistan while India retained control over rivers carrying roughly 20 per cent of the basin’s water. Despite this asymmetry, he said, India honoured its commitments under the agreement.

He alleged that Pakistan responded with repeated military conflicts in 1965, 1971 and 1999, besides supporting cross-border terrorism, including the attacks on Parliament in 2001, Mumbai in 2008, Pathankot and Uri in 2016, Pulwama in 2019 and Pahalgam in 2025.

The Ambassador also accused Pakistan of repeatedly delaying and obstructing India-initiated projects permitted under the treaty and blocking efforts to modernise the agreement in line with technological advancements and contemporary requirements.

“If Pakistan sincerely wants India’s cooperation on bilateral issues, it must first dismantle the terror infrastructure it has built over the years,” he said.

Kwatra said repeated calls for dialogue ignored the history of failed initiatives and reiterated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s position that “terror and talks cannot go together, terror and trade cannot go together, and water and blood cannot flow together.”

He further argued that Pakistan’s water scarcity stemmed primarily from poor domestic water management rather than India’s actions, urging Islamabad to improve water productivity instead of blaming New Delhi.

(Agencies)