World Bank has no role beyond being the facilitator of the Indus WatersTreaty between India and Pakistan, Ajay Banga, the President of the international financial institution said.
The World Bank President clarified that it will not step in to the fix the suspension imposed on the water sharing agreement by India following the Pahalgam terrorist attack.
The Indus Waters Treaty was signed in 1960 between India and Pakistan with the help of the World Bank, which is also a signatory.
“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,” Ajay Banga was quoted as saying by the Press Information Bureau.
A day after the horrific terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam that led to the loss of 26 lives, mostly tourists, the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 was kept in abeyance with immediate effect, until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism.
Separately, on Thursday evening, India’s foreign secretary Vikram Misri highlighted that Pakistan had repeatedly violated Indus Water Treaty by deliberately creating “legal roadblocks” over the years.
He added that it was India’s patience that India was “adhering to the treaty for the last 65 years.”
Addressing a press briefing, Misri said that India was constantly trying to negotiate to discuss the modification on the treaty.
The Treaty allocates the Western Rivers (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab) to Pakistan and the Eastern Rivers (Ravi, Beas, Sutlej) to India. At the same time, the Treaty allows each country certain waters of the rivers allocated to the other. The treaty gives India 20 per cent of the water from the Indus River System and the rest 80 per cent to Pakistan.
(ANI)