 "'Treaties are built on trust which can't flow with terror': Ex-diplomat on India's stand on Indus Waters Treaty")
After India rejected The Hague-based Court of Arbitration’s (CoA) ruling in the Indus Waters Treaty, former senior diplomat Syed Akbaruddin said that treaties are built on trust and trust cannot flow with terrorism.
Last month, the CoA had ruled that it remained competent to arbitrate Pakistan’s concerns over the Indus Waters Treaty despite India suspending the treaty. Pakistan had sought the CoA to arbitrate its concerns over India making two hydropower projects on the Indus River System prior to the treaty’s suspension.
Days after the Pahalgam attack in which terrorists killed 26 people, India on April 23 announced the suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty . India has said that the treaty would not be restored until Pakistan addresses terrorism-related concerns.
In an article for The Indian Express, Akbaruddin said that while the CoA’s ruling may be procedurally valid as it reflects the logic of legal permanence, the law cannot be blind to context and India did not put the treaty in abeyance lightly.
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“It placed the Treaty in abeyance after Pakistan-based terrorists killed dozens of Indians in a brazen attack in Pahalgam on April 22. When blood stains the snow of the Pir Panjal, the abstractions of international law ring hollow. India has not cut off water or violated Pakistan’s share. Instead, it has frozen the instruments of cooperation as a wake-up call. The message is stark: Treaties are built on trust, and trust cannot flow when terror does,” noted Akbaruddin, a former Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations.
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Akbaruddin also said that India must not re-engage with Pakistan on the Indus waters and other issues until there is evidence of action against terrorism.
Akbaruddin said that “India should craft a diplomatic path that links re-engagement to Pakistan’s demonstrable action on terror”.
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“This is not a compromise. It is conditional justice. If Pakistan wants the benefits of the Indus water system, it must stop using terror as a tool. India must also speak to the world with clarity. It is not undermining peace. It is demanding that peace be real. It is not holding water hostage. It is refusing to be hostage to hypocrisy,” noted Akbaruddin.
At the same time, India must expand infrastructure to fully utilise both its entitled share of the eastern rivers and its permissible use of the western rivers under the Indus treaty under a transparent, precise, and speedy manner, noted Akbaruddin.
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