Clarifying its stance on its role in easing disagreements between India and Pakistan on the Indus Water Treaty issue, World Bank President Ajay Banga said today that the financial body – which is a signatory to the treaty – was only a facilitator and would not interfere in the matter. His statement came via the Press Information Bureau after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday evening.
Laying to rest speculations that the World Bank will fix the suspension put in place by India after the deadly Pahalgam attack in Kashmir last month that killed 26 people, the World Bank chief said that it had no role to play beyond being a facilitator of the treaty.
“We have no role to play beyond a facilitator. There’s a lot of speculation in the media about how the World Bank will step in and fix the problem but it’s all bunk. The World Bank’s role is merely as a facilitator,” Banga, who became the head of the international financial institution in June 2023, was quoted as saying.
The Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 between river-sharing neighbours India and Pakistan. The World Bank helped the two countries strike a deal and also became a signatory. The treaty, which allocates the Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan and the Eastern Rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India, took nine years of negotiations. At the same time, the treaty allows each country certain waters of the rivers allocated to the other – it gives India 20 per cent of the water from the Indus River System and the rest 80 per cent to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri also spoke about the treaty on Thursday evening, accusing Pakistan of repeatedly violating the water-sharing agreement by deliberately creating “legal roadblocks” over the years.
“For the last 2.5 years, India has been in communication with the Government of Pakistan. We have sent several notices to them requesting negotiations to discuss the modification of the treaty. India has been honouring the treaty for more than six decades, even during the period when Pakistan imposed multiple wars on us. Pakistan has been the one acting in violation of the treaty, deliberately creating legal roadblocks in India, exercising its legitimate rights on the Western rivers... It is India’s patience that we were adhering to the treaty for the last 65 years, even after so many provocations,” Misri said in a press briefing, adding that Pakistan’s constant “refusal to respond to our request” has been another factor to put the treaty in abeyance.
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