India cannot ‘set aside’ international obligations when inconvenient, says Dar on New Delhi’s unilateral move against IWT

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday that India could not set aside its international obligations when they became inconvenient, stressing that the status of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) had been reaffirmed by a court of arbitration. India unilaterally suspended the accord in April last year — a move that was followed by a brief military conflict between the two sides in May 2025. In August, the Permanent Court of Arb­i­­t­ration (PCA), in a setback to New Delhi, declared that the treaty between the two co­u­ntries remained fully in force, as India had no justification for end­ing or suspending the agreement.

In his address at the ministerial meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Dar said: “The treaty is a binding international agreement and contains no provision permitting its unilateral suspension. “International obligations can’t be set aside when they become inconvenient. ” Recalling the conflict between Pakistan and India in May last year following a deadly attack in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam, Dar said it “provided a stark reminder of the consequences of leaving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute unresolved”. The foreign minister also mentioned that following the Pahalgam incident, India levelled baseless allegations against Pakistan without credible investigations and embarked upon military aggression . “Pakistan exercised its inherent right to self-defence under Article 51 of the United Nations Charter in a measured and proportionate manner while acting responsibly to prevent further escalation,” he stated. DPM Dar emphasised that the “lessons from [the] dangerous confrontation from May 2025 must not be…