NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd March, 2021) Representatives of India in Pakistan on Tuesday began talks in New Delhi on the water resources of the Indus River for the first time in two years, media reported on Tuesday.
Per the arrangements between India and Pakistan, the Indus Commission meets at least once a year. In 2019, the meeting was canceled due to the terrorist attack in Pulwama, which killed more than 40 Indian soldiers and became one of the reasons for the cancellation of the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. In 2020, the meeting was canceled over the COVID-19 pandemic. New Delhi proposed holding the meeting online, while Islamabad insisted on a in-person meeting at the border of the two countries.
According to Deccan Herald, during the two-day talks, Pakistan is expected to present objections to Indian hydropower projects on Chenab river that crosses both India and Pakistan and flows into the Indus River near the city of Uch Sharif in southern Pakistan. The waters of the Chenab were largely assigned to Pakistan under the terms of the Indus Waters Treaty that was signed between India and Pakistan in 1960.
The talks come amid an ongoing crisis in relations between the two countries, which took a turn for the worse after the February 2019 bombing attack in India's Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir, for which New Delhi blamed Islamabad, accusing it of sheltering terrorists, while Pakistan denied any involvement. The situation was exacerbated even further when later that year, the Indian government announced its decision to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and split it into two union territories, provoking a sharp reaction from its neighbor.
The Indus Waters Treaty is a water-distribution treaty between India and Pakistan that assigned all the water of the eastern rivers � Sutlej, Beas, and Ravi amounting to around 33 million acre feet annually � to India. The waters of western rivers � Indus, Jhelum and Chenab � amounting to around 135 million acre feet annually have been assigned largely to Pakistan. The treaty allows India to use the western river waters for limited irrigation and power generation projects, while Pakistan has the right to raise objections to design of Indian hydroelectric projects on western rivers.
