NEW DELHI, May 16 (NNN-PTI) – India’s External Affairs Minister, S. Jaishankar, said yesterday that, the Indus Water Treaty (with Pakistan) would remain in abeyance, till Pakistan ended “cross-border terrorism” targeting India.
The statement assumed significance, a day after Pakistan reportedly asked India to restart talks on the water treaty.
In the wake of the Apr 22, killing of 26 tourists in Pahalgam area of the Indian-controlled Kashmir, India had put the water treaty in abeyance, blaming the killing on “terrorists trained in Pakistani soil.”
“The Indus Water Treaty is held in abeyance, and will continue to be held in abeyance, until the cross-border terrorism by Pakistan is credibly and irrevocably stopped,” Jaishankar told media, in New Delhi.
Signed in 1960, the Indus Water Treaty is a water-distribution agreement between the two neighbours, to use the water available in the Indus River and its tributaries.– NNN-PTI
