ISLAMABAD: Hoping for rapprochement after a year of terror attacks and anger, India and Pakistan may convene a Permanent Indus Commission meeting during the coming months after such talks under Indus Water Treaty (IWT) was suspended last September following terror strikes on the Army camp in Uri.
Following the successful backdoor diplomacy, the Indus Water Commissioners of Pakistan and India agreed to meet on March 23 and 24 in New Delhi after a two-year hiatus, and diplomatic sources told The Express Tribune on Monday.
Indus Water Commissioner Syed Muhammad Mehr Ali Shah and Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry will represent Pakistan.
It will be the 116th meeting of the Pakistan-India Indus Water Commissioners. The last meeting was held two years ago in Lahore.
The meeting could not be held for two years due to the coronavirus pandemic, tensions between the two neighboring countries, and other factors.
Officials acknowledged that the holding of the next annual round of the PIC, which was last held in July 2016, was a “positive” sign, given that India had announced it was “suspending” the talks after the Uri attacks in September.
According to senior government officials at the time, the decision to suspend the talks had been taken when Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with key officials, including National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, to “review” the IWT.
Asked if the talks’ scheduling now in March despite the previous decision meant a climbdown in India’s position or whether terror attacks had decreased in the past few months, the MEA did not offer an official comment.
“It is a regular bilateral meeting of the Permanent Indus Commission which implements the Indus Waters Treaty,” a senior official told The Hindu, denying that there was any “shift” in India’s position.