India’s announcement at the United Nations that it has placed the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) with Pakistan in abeyance marks a major diplomatic and geopolitical shift in South Asia. Delivered by Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish at the UN Security Council, India’s justification for this unprecedented step hinges on both security and humanitarian grounds, directly linking it to Pakistan’s continued support for cross-border terrorism.
India strongly countered what it called "disinformation" from the Pakistani delegation, asserting that it is Pakistan — not India — that has consistently violated the spirit of the 1960 treaty. Ambassador Harish outlined a range of provocations that shaped New Delhi's decision:
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Decades of state-sponsored terrorism, including the recent attack in Pahalgam that targeted Indian and foreign tourists, resulting in civilian casualties.
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Over 20,000 Indian deaths in terror attacks over four decades, with Ambassador Harish describing this as a systematic campaign to undermine India’s civilian life, economic progress, and religious harmony.
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Obstruction by Pakistan of India’s attempts to modify or upgrade dam infrastructure under permissible treaty provisions.
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Security threats to Indian water projects, including the 2012 terrorist attack on the Tulbul Navigation Project in Jammu and Kashmir.
Despite these provocations, India emphasized it had displayed “extraordinary patience and magnanimity” for over six decades. The ambassador noted that India had repeatedly approached Pakistan to modernize and renegotiate certain clauses of the treaty to reflect current realities like:
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Energy demands (especially clean energy through hydropower),
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Climate change pressures,
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Demographic shifts, and
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Safety concerns about outdated infrastructure.
However, these proposals were consistently stonewalled by Pakistan, which India accused of using the treaty as a tool to strategically constrain India’s developmental rights over its own waters.
India’s stand, articulated firmly at the UNSC, is clear: the treaty will remain suspended unless Pakistan “credibly and irrevocably ends its support for terrorism.” The move aligns water diplomacy with national security in a way that fundamentally redefines bilateral ties.
This is significant because the Indus Waters Treaty—brokered by the World Bank in 1960—has long been seen as a rare example of peaceful cooperation between the two rivals, even during wartime. It allocated the eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India and the western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan, allowing limited Indian use of the latter.
India’s April 23 decision to suspend the IWT following the Baisaran Valley terror attack represents the first such disruption of the treaty since its inception. Although cross-border firing had reportedly ceased after mutual talks, the treaty remains on hold, signaling that diplomatic engagement alone may no longer suffice for India without a fundamental change in Pakistan’s stance on terrorism.
In essence, India’s message to the international community is twofold:
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Terrorism and trust cannot coexist in transboundary agreements.
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Water cannot continue to flow when blood continues to be spilled.
