ISLAMABAD (AP) — India has alerted Pakistan about possible cross-border flooding after heavy monsoon rains in the South Asian region, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday, in what marks the first public official contact between the two nuclear-armed rivals in months.
The ministry said New Delhi conveyed the information through diplomatic channels instead of the Indus Waters Commission, the permanent mechanism created under the 1960 World Bank-brokered Indus Waters Treaty.
An Indian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said the warning was shared on “humanitarian grounds” and not under the treaty.
There was no immediate comment from New Delhi.
The communication marked the first known diplomatic-level contact since May, when India carried out missile strikes inside Pakistan in response to the April killing of 26 tourists in Kashmir. Pakistan launched its own strikes in response, raising fears of a wider conflict before U.S. President Donald Trump said he had brokered a cease-fire, which has held.
The flood alert to Pakistan from India comes as monsoon rains batter the region. Floods triggered by rains have killed nearly 800 people in Pakistan since June 26. Dozens of people have been killed in flooding in Indian-administered Kashmir, which is a split between the two sides and claimed by both in its entirety.
The Indus Water Treaty, which was suspended by India following the April attack, governs the sharing of the Indus River system, with India controlling the eastern rivers of the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas, while Pakistan oversees the western rivers of the Jhelum, Chenab, and Indus, which flow through the disputed Kashmir region.
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Associated Press writer Rajesh Roy contributed to this story from New Delhi.
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