India today reiterated that the constitution of the so-called Court of Arbitration is in contravention of the provisions of the Indus Waters Treaty. The External Affairs Ministry said in a statement that the Permanent Court of Arbitration has issued a press release mentioning that an illegally-constituted so-called Court of Arbitration has ruled that it has the ‘competence’ to consider matters concerning the Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric projects. India has stressed that a Neutral Expert is already seized of the differences pertaining to these projects. The Neutral Expert proceedings are the only Treaty-consistent proceedings at this juncture and the Treaty does not provide for parallel proceedings on the same set of issues.

India has been participating in the Treaty-consistent Neutral Expert proceedings. The last meeting of the neutral Expert took place at The Hague on the 27th and the 28th of February this year. The next meeting of the Neutral Expert process is scheduled to be held in September this year. The External Affairs Ministry said, India cannot be compelled to recognize or participate in illegal and parallel proceedings not envisaged by the Treaty. It stressed that India has been in talks with Pakistan regarding the modification of the Indus Waters Treaty and this recent development only underlines why such modification is so necessary.