ECONOMYNEXT – Pakistan has suspended the Simla agreement, inked in 1972 following the Indo-Pakistan war in a tit-for-tat escalation following the massacre of tourists in Indian Kashmir by militants that India believes are linked to her neighbor.
After India asked Pakistani nationals using a SAARC visa exemption scheme to leave the country, closed border posts, and restricted water releases, Pakistan responded with its own measures.
Both nations claim that the opposite side is backing militancy in each other’s countries.
“Any attempt to stop or divert the flow of water belonging to Pakistan as per the Indus Waters Treaty, and the usurpation of the rights of lower riparian will be considered as an Act of War and responded with full force across the complete spectrum of National Power,” Pakistan said in a statement after a meeting of the National Security Committee.
“Noting the reckless and irresponsible behaviour of India, which disregards international conventions, UN Security Council Resolutions and international obligations at will, Pakistan shall exercise the right to hold all bilateral agreements with India including but not limited to Simla Agreement in abeyance, till India desists from its manifested behaviour of fomenting terrorism inside Pakistan; trans-national killings; and non-adherence to international law and UN Resolutions on Kashmir.”
Pakistan also closed its airspace to Indian airlines.
“All trade with India including to and from any third country through Pakistan is suspended forthwith,” the statement added.
Both countries had downgraded diplomatic relations sending some of the diplomats including military attaches home.
Thought tension had risen through various incidents in the past, there are fears that the suspension of bilateral agreements may indicate uncharted territory with war drums being beaten.
“In a world, where the territorial status quo is no longer considered sacrosanct—see what is happening in Gaza and Ukraine—the prospect of a redisposition of boundaries and a comprehensive overhaul of the terms of engagement between India and Pakistan is no longer impossible to imagine if the current crisis continues to escalate,” wrote a political analyst in the Indian Express newspaper.
“India’s use of force must be carefully planned and executed at a time and place of its choice to produce maximum effects on the Pakistan army. It will come sooner than later. The question is only about its quality and purpose.”
“For more than two decades, Western involvement in the Kashmir dispute may have steadily diminished but it has not disappeared. Instead, China’s has unmistakably risen.”
The analyst noted that during the last Trump administration, the US had intervened to defuse tensions when and Indian Air Force aircraft was downed by Pakistan.
The rules based order that kept the world stable has been torn up by President Donald Trump, with Russian President Vladimir Putin also engaged in building a Greater Russia by threatening neighbors.
Trump himself has said Canada should be part of America and had made remarks about Greenland.
Europe is re-arming againt Putin’s possible future aggression, amid an economic downturn, recalling the 1930s. Both World War I and World War II were triggered by European nationalism with the US being dragged in later. (Colombo/Apr25/2025)
