Amid on going tensions between India and Pakistan, World Bank President Ajay Banga has said that the international financial institution will not step in and fix the problem between both the countries regarding the Indus Waters Treaty. Banga has clarified that the World Bank’s role is nothing beyond being the facilitator of the Indus Waters Treaty between India and Pakistan.
Speaking on the media reports that came after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening, Banga said that “its all bunk.” “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 & fix the problem but it’s all bunk. The World Bank’s role is merely as a facilitator,” Banga’s statement on the Press Information Bureau (PIB) stated.
India and Pakistan, in 1960, made a formal agreement, called the Indus Waters Treaty, to decide how water would be shared between both countries from the Indus River. The need for a treaty for water sharing arose after Independence when control over the river became a point of potential conflict between the two nations. Pakistan went to the United Nations (UN) and the UN brought in the World Bank to mediate. After almost nine years of negotiation, India’s then-Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Pakistan’s then-President Ayub Khan finally signed the agreement in 1960.
After the terror attack on April 22 in Baisaran Valley of Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam district killed 26 tourists, India put into abeyance the Indus Waters Treaty. Pakistani leaders have issued “war threats” to India over this decision.
