Pakistan deliberately creating roadblocks on Indus Waters Treaty issue, says Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri on Thursday said that Pakistan has been deliberately creating roadblocks over the years, while India has only been exercising its rights over the Western rivers, as governed in the Indus Waters Treaty.

The Foreign Secretary was speaking at a media briefing, anchored by Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh. The briefing comes a day after India launched missile and drone strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on Wednesday, under Operation Sindoor. 

Stay updated on Operation Sindoor 2.0 LIVE with Livemint here 

On Thursday, the defence ministry said the Pakistani military tried last night to target Awantipura, Srinagar, Jammu, Pathankot, Amritsar, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Adampur, Bhatinda, Chandigarh, Nal, Phalodi, Uttarlai, and Bhuj but these attempts were foiled and a Pakistani air defence system was destroyed in Lahore.

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Misri addresses issues related to Indus Waters Treaty

While junking disinformation spread regarding the water treaty, Misri said that “There have been fundamental changes in the circumstances in which the Indus Water Treaty was concluded, and they called for a reassessment of the obligations under the treaty. Over the last year-and-a-half to two years, India is in communication with the government of Pakistan."

“We sent several letters to them, requesting for negotiation to discuss modification of this treaty. India has, for six plus decades, honoured this treaty,” he added.

“Pakistan is the one which has been acting in violation of this treaty. Pakistan is the one acting in violation of treaty, deliberately creating roadblocks in India exercising its legitimate rights over the western rivers,” Misri said during the briefing.

The central government took several punitive measures in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam district, which killed 26 civilians, on April 22.

These measures included halting the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, shutting the Attari-Wagah border, expelling the neighbouring country's top military attaches from India, and cancelling all short-term visas issued to Pakistani nationals to visit India.

What is the Indus Waters Treaty

The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) is an official agreement between India and Pakistan on who gets what while sharing water from the The Indus river system.

After nine years of talks between the two nations, and with the World Bank's help, the treaty was finally signed by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan's President Ayub Khan on September 19, 1960.

As per the treaty, the Western Rivers were allocated to Pakistan and the Easter Rivers were allotted to India. The treaty also allows each country certain uses on the rivers allocated to the other. Read more

(With inputs from agencies)