Pakistan raises Indus Water Treaty issue at UN amid maritime security debate
Pakistan on Tuesday raised its Indus Water Treaty with India, which has been put in abeyance by New Delhi after the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
Without directly mentioning India, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, also rued its exclusion from the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and described India’s naval superiority as aggressive naval expansion.
“In our own immediate neighborhood, however, we have witnessed a troubling pattern of behavior by one major country — driven by aspirations of unchecked regional hegemony — marked by aggressive naval expansion, and efforts seeking to assert dominance over critical waterways,” Ahmad told members of the UNSC participating in the security council high-level open debate on ‘Strengthening Maritime Security through International Cooperation for Global Stability’.
“This destabilizing and dangerous naval build-up is accompanied by coercive diplomacy and the systematic exclusion of neighboring states from regional maritime security frameworks, including the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA). Such actions undermine the maritime balance and restrict the space for inclusive cooperation,” he alleged.
“This same country has also displayed a concerning propensity to usurp and weaponize shared natural resources — including trans boundary rivers — in flagrant breach of treaty obligations and the principles of good neighborliness,” Ahmad said.
“These actions reflect a broader agenda of leveraging geography to disrupt and destabilize long-standing cooperative arrangements, particularly to the detriment of the lower riparian state that is Pakistan, and impose unilateral outcomes, in both riverine and maritime spheres,” alleged the Pakistani diplomat.
Following the deadly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, which India has linked to Pakistan-based terror groups, New Delhi has placed the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance. Signed in 1960, the treaty has long governed water sharing between India and Pakistan over the Indus River system.
India’s move to suspend certain provisions of the agreement signals a strong diplomatic response, reflecting growing frustration with cross-border terrorism and Islamabad’s alleged inaction against extremist networks operating from its soil.
In his address, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish told the Security Council that India views maritime security and countering terrorism as central to its national security and economic interests.
Its approach balances robust defence capabilities, regional diplomacy, international cooperation and domestic infrastructure development. It continues to evolve its strategy in response to new threats and geopolitical shifts in the Indo-Pacific region, he said.
Harish said India is committed to promoting a free, open, and rules-based maritime order in accordance with the principles of UNCLOS.
New Delhi is committed to an effective role in the region by undertaking various capacity building initiatives that focus on addressing contemporary security challenges, forging the way ahead to strengthen combat capability and addressing strategic, operational and governance aspects of maritime security, he added.
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