External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India will keep the Indus Waters Treaty suspended until Pakistan stops cross-border terrorism. He made this statement a day after Pakistan asked India to reconsider the suspension. Jaishankar also said that the only Kashmir-related talks India is willing to have are about returning areas under Pakistan’s illegal control.

His statement came a day after sources told India Today TV that Pakistan’s Ministry of Water Resources sent a letter to India’s Ministry of External Affairs. The letter warned that suspending the Indus Waters Treaty could cause a water crisis in Pakistan and asked India to reconsider its decision.

The treaty, signed in 1960 with help from the World Bank, regulates how India and Pakistan share water from their rivers. It gives India control over the eastern rivers, Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi, while Pakistan controls the western rivers, Indus, Jhelum, and Chenab. India suspended the treaty after a deadly terror attack on April 22 in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, which killed 26 people, mostly tourists. India accused Pakistan of supporting the attack. Following this, India’s Cabinet Committee on Security decided to stop the water-sharing agreement as part of its efforts to pressure Pakistan to stop backing terrorism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday firmly stated that India will not maintain normal relations with Pakistan as long as terrorism continues. He said, “Water and blood cannot flow together,” emphasising that any talks with Pakistan will only focus on terrorism and the issue of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. He also stressed, “Terror and talks cannot happen at the same time. Terror and trade cannot happen simultaneously.”

The Ministry of External Affairs explained that India has suspended the Indus Waters Treaty because Pakistan has disregarded the goodwill that the treaty was built on. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the treaty was created in the spirit of friendship, but Pakistan has violated this by promoting cross-border terrorism for decades.

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