India rejected a ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration on Monday that found the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan remains legally binding. The decision reopens a long-running dispute between the two nuclear-armed neighbors over the sharing of river waters.
The court in The Hague stated the treaty stays in force and that India cannot unilaterally suspend it. Pakistan had brought the case, arguing that New Delhi’s actions threatened the agreement that governs how the two countries divide the waters of the Indus river system.
India dismissed the findings, maintaining that it does not recognise the court’s authority in the matter. New Delhi has argued that the arbitration proceedings themselves were improperly constituted, and it has declined to participate in them.
The Indus Waters Treaty, signed in 1960 and brokered by the World Bank, allocates the waters of six rivers between the two nations. India controls the three eastern rivers, while Pakistan draws from the three western rivers. The pact has survived multiple wars and remains one of the few functioning agreements between the rivals.
Tensions over the treaty escalated after India moved to hold the agreement in abeyance, a step Islamabad has treated as a threat to its water security. Agriculture in Pakistan depends heavily on the Indus system, and officials there have described any disruption to river flows as an existential concern.
Pakistan welcomed the ruling as a vindication of its position that the treaty cannot be set aside by one party. Islamabad has said it will pursue all legal avenues to keep the agreement operating as written.
The dispute sits within a broader pattern of territorial and resource friction across the region, including competing claims that have strained India’s ties with its neighbours. Water has become an increasingly contested element of that rivalry.
The court’s finding does not resolve the standoff, as India’s rejection leaves enforcement uncertain. Further arbitration proceedings on related questions are expected to continue.