ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to prevent India from using the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) as an “instrument of coercion,” warning that any unilateral action to suspend or undermine the decades-old water-sharing pact could threaten regional peace and violate international law.
Signed in 1960, the treaty was brokered by the World Bank and governs the distribution of waters from the Indus river system, allocating the western rivers — Indus, Jhelum and Chenab — primarily to Pakistan, which relies on them for most of its agriculture. The three eastern rivers — Ravi, Beas, and Sutlej — were allocated primarily to India for unrestricted use.
India announced in April 2025 that it was placing the World Bank-brokered agreement “in abeyance” following a deadly militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Pakistan. Islamabad denied the allegation and maintains that the treaty cannot be suspended unilaterally. Pakistan has accused India of pursuing reservoir, expansion and diversion projects on rivers covered by the IWT in violation of the agreement.
Speaking at a UNSC debate on natural resource governance, Pakistan’s permanent representative Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said lawful and cooperative management of shared transboundary resources is indispensable to preventing conflict, peaceful settlement of disputes, and promoting friendly relations among neighboring states.
“Contrary to this spirit, our eastern neighbor has sought to weaponize water against Pakistan by abusing its status as the upper riparian, unilaterally and illegally placing the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance, a course of action for which neither the treaty nor the general principles of international law provide any basis whatsoever,” he said.
“The Indus Waters Treaty remains valid, binding, and fully in force, as reaffirmed by the August 2025 award of the Court of Arbitration. No state should be permitted to abuse shared water resources as an instrument of coercion or political pressure, much less when it breaches solemn treaty obligations... The Council should make full use of the tools at its disposal, including preventive diplomacy, peaceful resolution of disputes, sanctions regimes, and monitoring mechanisms to address these threats.”
The South Asian neighbors have been arguing over hydroelectric projects on the shared Indus river system for decades, with Pakistan complaining that India’s planned hydropower dams will cut its flows.
In August last year, the International Court of Arbitration rendered an award on issues of general interpretation of the IWT, explaining the design criteria for the new run-of-river hydropower projects to be constructed by India on the western rivers of Chenab, Jhelum and Indus, which Islamabad said vindicated its stance.
In its findings, the Court of Arbitration declared that India shall “let flow” the waters of the western rivers for Pakistan’s unrestricted use. In that connection, the specified exceptions for generation of hydro-electric plants must conform strictly to the requirements laid down in the Treaty, rather than to what India might consider an “ideal” or “best practices approach,” according to the Pakistani foreign office.
Pakistani officials have said in recent months that they have witnessed unusual fluctuations in river flows, while Islamabad previously said any obstruction of Pakistan’s water would be considered an “act of war” and it would not let New Delhi restrict the flow of Indus waters.
Ahmad said Pakistan rejects India’s suspension of the treaty, which directly threatens the livelihoods and well-being of over 240 million people of Pakistan.
“Natural resource governance must remain firmly anchored in the UN Charter and international law,” he said. “International cooperation must strengthen national capacities while respecting national ownership, priorities, and policy space.”
