'India will keep Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance until Pakistan…': What MEA said

India-Pakistan Conflict: India will keep "Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures support for cross-border terrorism”, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Tuesday. India suspended the Indus Waters Treaty on 23 April 2025, following the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which resulted in the death of 26 civilians.

The Indus Waters Treaty, a water-sharing agreement signed in 1960 between India and Pakistan and brokered by the World Bank, allocates the waters of the six rivers of the Indus basin between the two countries. Under the treaty, India was granted control over the eastern rivers —Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej —while Pakistan received rights over the western rivers —Indus, Chenab, and Jhelum.

However, in the wake of escalating tensions following the Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent military conflicts in 2025, India announced the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.

This marked a significant shift in the bilateral relationship, as the treaty had been a longstanding pillar of cooperation despite political hostilities.

During the press briefing on Tuesday, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal also said, “India has a firm stance that it will not give in to nuclear blackmail or allow cross-border terrorism to be conducted invoking it.”

“Our military action was entirely in the conventional domain,” Jaiswal said, rebutting US President Donald Trump's speculation on nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan.

“Terrorist infrastructure India destroyed were responsible not only for the deaths of Indians but of many other innocents around the world,” the MEA spokesperson added, defending Operation Sindoor.

“Pakistan nurtured terrorism on an industrial scale,” he added.

On Monday, while addressing the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that after the surgical strike in 2016 and the air strike in 2019, Operation Sindoor is India's policy against terrorism.

Referring to India putting in abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack, PM Modi said that "water and blood cannot flow together".