Kwatra says Indus treaty pause reflects Pakistan's decades of hostility

India's envoy to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, has said the Indus Water Treaty was signed in a spirit of goodwill and friendship, but Pakistan spent decades undermining that basis. In an article published in Newsweek, he said India's decision to keep the treaty in abeyance only recognised a reality created by Pakistan's conduct.

Kwatra's article came days after Pakistan hosted a conference to protest India's decision to place the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance on April 23 last year, a day after Pakistan-trained terrorists killed 26 people, most of them tourists, at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. He argued that calls for cooperation cannot be separated from the history of terrorism and hostility between the two countries.

"It is worth remembering that the treaty's preamble declares it was concluded 'in a spirit of goodwill and friendship'. Pakistan spent half a century dismantling that goodwill and friendship. The abeyance merely acknowledges what Pakistan's conduct had already destroyed," Kwatra wrote. Signed in 1960, the treaty gave India control over three of the six Indus basin rivers carrying about 20 per cent of the basin's water, while Pakistan got rights over rivers carrying roughly 80 per cent. "That asymmetry stifled development for decades in Indian regions that could have benefited from better water rights. India honoured the treaty anyway," he said.

Kwatra said Pakistan answered that with wars against India in 1965, 1971 and 1999, as well as years of hostility and cross-border terrorism. He listed the 2001 attack on India's Parliament, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, the Uri and Pathankot attacks in 2016, the Pulwama attack in 2019 and the Pahalgam attack in 2025. He said that if Pakistan sincerely wants India's cooperation on bilateral issues, it must first dismantle the terror infrastructure it has built over the years.

He also accused Pakistan of repeatedly obstructing India-led projects under the treaty through delays and official hurdles. "Pakistan also consistently blocked India's initiatives to renegotiate the treaty in light of six decades of technological change, which would have let India develop its hydropower potential," he said. "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." On suggestions that India and Pakistan should resume talks, Kwatra wrote that those making such arguments had either ignored the record of past efforts or believed "that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is not insanity".

Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kwatra said: "Terror and talks cannot go together... Terror and trade cannot go together... Water and blood cannot flow together." He also said Pakistan's water scarcity was the result of mismanagement in Islamabad, adding, "...the Government of Pakistan would do better to fix its dismal water productivity, than to stage conferences blaming India and issuing threats." He said the practice of blaming India for every domestic failure had grown old and added, "The world should say so, unequivocally." Overall, Kwatra's article argued that India's stand on the Indus Water Treaty reflects a long history of conflict, obstruction and terrorism, rather than a sudden shift in policy.

With PTI Inputs

India's envoy to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, has said the Indus Water Treaty was signed in a spirit of goodwill and friendship, but Pakistan spent decades undermining that basis. In an article published in Newsweek, he said India's decision to keep the treaty in abeyance only recognised a reality created by Pakistan's conduct.

Kwatra's article came days after Pakistan hosted a conference to protest India's decision to place the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance on April 23 last year, a day after Pakistan-trained terrorists killed 26 people, most of them tourists, at Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir. He argued that calls for cooperation cannot be separated from the history of terrorism and hostility between the two countries.

"It is worth remembering that the treaty's preamble declares it was concluded 'in a spirit of goodwill and friendship'. Pakistan spent half a century dismantling that goodwill and friendship. The abeyance merely acknowledges what Pakistan's conduct had already destroyed," Kwatra wrote. Signed in 1960, the treaty gave India control over three of the six Indus basin rivers carrying about 20 per cent of the basin's water, while Pakistan got rights over rivers carrying roughly 80 per cent. "That asymmetry stifled development for decades in Indian regions that could have benefited from better water rights. India honoured the treaty anyway," he said.

Kwatra said Pakistan answered that with wars against India in 1965, 1971 and 1999, as well as years of hostility and cross-border terrorism. He listed the 2001 attack on India's Parliament, the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, the Uri and Pathankot attacks in 2016, the Pulwama attack in 2019 and the Pahalgam attack in 2025. He said that if Pakistan sincerely wants India's cooperation on bilateral issues, it must first dismantle the terror infrastructure it has built over the years.

He also accused Pakistan of repeatedly obstructing India-led projects under the treaty through delays and official hurdles. "Pakistan also consistently blocked India's initiatives to renegotiate the treaty in light of six decades of technological change, which would have let India develop its hydropower potential," he said. "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." On suggestions that India and Pakistan should resume talks, Kwatra wrote that those making such arguments had either ignored the record of past efforts or believed "that doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is not insanity".

Quoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kwatra said: "Terror and talks cannot go together... Terror and trade cannot go together... Water and blood cannot flow together." He also said Pakistan's water scarcity was the result of mismanagement in Islamabad, adding, "...the Government of Pakistan would do better to fix its dismal water productivity, than to stage conferences blaming India and issuing threats." He said the practice of blaming India for every domestic failure had grown old and added, "The world should say so, unequivocally." Overall, Kwatra's article argued that India's stand on the Indus Water Treaty reflects a long history of conflict, obstruction and terrorism, rather than a sudden shift in policy.

With PTI Inputs