Indian envoy accuses Pakistan of dismantling IWT over decades

India’s Ambassador to the United States, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, has strongly defended New Delhi’s decision to place the Indus Water Treaty (IWT) in abeyance, stating that Pakistan systematically destroyed the spirit of the 1960 agreement through persistent hostility and terrorism.

In an article published in Newsweek, Kwatra asserted that the treaty was signed “in a spirit of goodwill and friendship,” but Pakistan spent the next half-century dismantling that very goodwill. “The abeyance merely acknowledges what Pakistan’s conduct had already destroyed,” he wrote.

Kwatra’s remarks came days after Pakistan hosted an international conference protesting India’s move to suspend the treaty on April 23, 2025 — one day after a Pakistan-trained terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, killed 26 people, most of them tourists.

The Indus Waters Treaty, brokered by the World Bank and signed in 1960, allocated three eastern rivers (Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej) to India, which carry roughly 20 per cent of the basin’s water, while granting Pakistan rights over the three western rivers (Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab), carrying about 80 per cent.

Despite this significant asymmetry that limited development in its own northern regions for decades, India continued to honour the treaty, Kwatra noted. In contrast, Pakistan responded with wars in 1965, 1971, and 1999, along with repeated cross-border terrorism, including the 2001 Parliament attack, the 2008 Mumbai attacks, the 2016 Uri and Pathankot strikes, the 2019 Pulwama attack, and the 2025 Pahalgam incident.

The envoy highlighted Pakistan’s pattern of obstruction, including bureaucratic delays on India-initiated projects and consistent blocking of efforts to renegotiate the treaty to account for six decades of technological advancements and India’s hydropower needs.

“Bit by bit, Pakistan eroded India’s faith that it could exercise its rights under the treaty, or hope for a better one suited to today’s realities,” Kwatra wrote. He emphasised that if Pakistan genuinely seeks cooperation on bilateral issues, it must first dismantle the terror infrastructure it has nurtured for years.

Addressing calls for renewed dialogue between the two nations, Kwatra criticised advocates for ignoring historical failures. “They must believe that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is not insanity,” he said.

Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the envoy reiterated India’s firm position: “Terror and talks cannot go together… Terror and trade cannot go together… Water and blood cannot flow together.”

Kwatra also pointed out that Pakistan’s current water scarcity stems primarily from domestic mismanagement. He urged Islamabad to focus on improving its “dismal water productivity” rather than organising conferences to blame India and issue threats. “The habit of pinning every domestic failure on India has grown old. The world should say so, unequivocally,” he concluded.