ISLAMABAD: Pakistan urged India on Friday to restore technical engagement and water data-sharing under the Indus Waters Treaty, saying growing climate pressures made cooperation increasingly vital more than a year after New Delhi unilaterally put the pact “in abeyance.”

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar made the call in an address to a seminar in Washington, outlining a three-point approach that also called for full implementation of the 1960 treaty and the use of its established mechanisms to resolve disputes between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

“Pakistan and India should restore and strengthen technical engagement, transparency and data-sharing in accordance with the Treaty,” Dar said while addressing the seminar virtually.

“These are not unreasonable demands,” he continued. “They are the requirements of an agreement solemnly concluded by two sovereign States and sustained for more than six decades.”

India put the World Bank-brokered treaty in abeyance in April 2025, a day after 26 people were killed in an attack on tourists in Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir, citing what it called cross-border links to the attack.

Pakistan denied involvement and called for an international investigation to ascertain the facts of the incident. It also rejected India’s decision, saying the treaty contained no provision allowing either country to suspend it unilaterally.

The move was among a series of measures taken by New Delhi as relations deteriorated sharply following the attack, culminating in four days of fighting between the nuclear-armed neighbors in May 2025 before they agreed to a ceasefire.

The Indus Waters Treaty remains suspended after the ceasefire, with New Delhi saying its position has not changed.

Dar said on Friday the agreement remained “valid, binding and fully operative,” arguing that its survival through wars, military crises and diplomatic breakdowns over more than six decades demonstrated the importance of insulating shared water resources from political tensions.

He said the dispute had taken on greater urgency as climate change increased pressure on water supplies in Pakistan, which is already among the world’s most water-stressed countries.

“Climate stress makes treaty-based cooperation absolutely essential,” he said, citing changing precipitation patterns, glacial retreat, floods, droughts and growing hydrological variability.

The Indus system is critical to Pakistan’s agriculture, hydropower and food security. Under the treaty, India has control over the eastern Ravi, Beas and Sutlej rivers, while Pakistan has rights over the western Indus, Jhelum and Chenab, subject to specified uses by India.

Dar also sought to internationalize concern over the dispute, telling the Washington gathering that the implications of unilateral interference with treaty arrangements extended beyond South Asia.

Pakistan has said in the past that India’s decision to unilaterally suspend the treaty could set a precedent and must worry lower-riparian states across the world.

“The international community therefore has a legitimate interest in preserving treaty-based water governance in South Asia,” he said.

India has argued that circumstances surrounding the treaty have fundamentally changed since it was signed and has linked its decision to Pakistan’s alleged support for cross-border militancy, a charge Islamabad denies.

Dar said disagreements should instead be addressed through the Permanent Indus Commission, a Neutral Expert or a Court of Arbitration, mechanisms established by the treaty itself.

He said recent arbitral proceedings had reinforced Pakistan’s position that treaty processes could continue despite non-participation or unilateral assertions.

Pakistan has warned previously that any attempt to deprive its people of waters allocated to the country under the treaty would be considered an “act of war.”

Dar reiterated that such a situation would have “profound consequences for regional peace and security,” though he maintained that Islamabad preferred dialogue and lawful dispute resolution.

“Our preference ... remains clear,” he said. “Law over unilateralism, dialogue over confrontation, and cooperation over coercion.”

“Shared waters must never be weaponized,” he added.