India rebuffs Pakistan's ASEAN comments

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Friday firmly rebuffed Pakistan's assertions at the ASEAN Regional Forum and reiterated that India's stand on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) remains unaltered, asserting that the pact will stay in abeyance until Islamabad "irrevocably and credibly" halts its backing of cross-border terrorism.

The MEA also brushed aside Pakistan's allegations regarding India intentionally causing flooding across the border, terming the assertions "baseless" and attributing the rise in the Chenab river's water level entirely to heavy monsoon precipitation.

Addressing a weekly media briefing, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal stated that Pakistan had exploited the ASEAN platform to bring up matters that India had already turned down.

"On the ASEAN forum, Pakistan utilised it to make certain remarks.

On that, we have made categorical rejections of the issues raised through our press release.

You would have seen our statement.

On the Indus Waters Treaty, our position remains unchanged and very clear.

The Indus Waters Treaty remains in abeyance until Pakistan irrevocably and credibly abjures its support for cross-border terrorism," Jaiswal said.

The spokesperson's statement comes a day after India firmly denounced comments made by Pakistan at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Manila, accusing Islamabad of deploying the multilateral platform to spread "state-sponsored disinformation" and divert attention from its own record of sponsoring cross-border terrorism.

Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, who represented Islamabad at the forum, raised the Jammu and Kashmir issue and criticised India's decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance.

India responded by asserting that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh "have been, are and will always remain integral and inalienable parts of India" and that Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on the matter.

Responding to another query during the briefing, Jaiswal pushed back against Pakistmedia reports alleging that India had deliberately caused downstream flooding by manipulating river flows.

"We have seen Pakistani media reports alleging that India is deliberately causing flooding in Pakistan and such allegations are baseless and contrary to the facts," he noted.

Detailing the situation, Jaiswal pointed out that the recent swell in the Chenab river's flow was caused by intense monsoon rainfall across Jammu and adjoining catchment zones between July 20 and July 23.

He observed that Pakistan's own Flood Forecasting Division in Lahore had, in its advisory issued on July 22, attributed the high flood levels in the Chenab to heavy rainfall over the upper catchment and forecast that the high flows would gradually recede as rainfall decreased.

"The rise in river flows is, therefore, a natural hydrological response to heavy monsoon rainfall and not the result of any deliberate action by India.

Attempts to portray a weather-driven flood event as an upstream intervention are factually incorrect, technically untenable, and contradicted by Pakistan's own official flood advisories," Jaiswal said.

He also rejected assertions that India had failed to issue flood warnings, pointing out that river flows during the period did not reach levels requiring special alerts.

"Any suggestion that India deliberately withheld flood-related information is, therefore, without factual basis.

Nevertheless, like last year, India will share high-flood data with Pakistan on humanitarian grounds, through diplomatic channels as and when a situation arises," he added.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar attended the ASEAN-India, East Asia Summit and ASEAN Regional Forum ministerial meetings in Manila over the last two days. ...