Rethink? India accepts Pak invite to attend meet on Indus Water Treaty
New Delhi: In a major development highlighting some improvement in ties this year and triggering speculation of a re-think of sorts by New Delhi, India has accepted Pakistan’s invitation to attend a meeting on the 1960 Indus Water Treaty between the two countries that will take place in Lahore later this month but senior government sources said the move does “not amount to talks between the two governments” and that there is “no shift” in the Indian government’s position.
New Delhi seems to be downplaying the acceptance of the invitation. Senior government sources said that regular meetings of the Indus Commissioners are only to discuss technical matters and not political issues. But it may be recalled that in the wake of the Uri terror attack last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had declared at an internal meeting to review the treaty last September that “blood and water cannot flow together”.
After the meeting back then, the government had reportedly decided to suspend further talks and increase the utilisation of rivers flowing through Jammu and Kashmir to fully exercise India’s rights under the pact.
Senior government sources said that regular meetings of the Commission deal with technical matters concerned with implementation of the Treaty and “do not amount to talks between the two governments”.
