The World Bank has distanced itself from speculation that it will “fix” decades of political and military tension between India and Pakistan.
A message from World Bank chief Ajay Banga, shared by the Indian government on Friday, said, “We have no role to play beyond (that of) a facilitator.”
“There is a lot of speculation in the media about how the World Bank will step in and fix the problem… but it is all bunk. The World Bank’s role is merely as a facilitator,” Banga said.
Banga had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Thursday.
The meeting was held a day after India’s Operation Sindoor targeted nine terror camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir.
Banga is in India over investment opportunities in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP-ruled state goes to polls in 2027. He is also scheduled to hold talks with UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
Nevertheless, Mr Banga’s visit to India at this time led to talk New Delhi might persuade the global financial body to turn the screws on Pakistan’s already faltering economy.
The World Bank’s message Friday responded to that talk, and also to speculation it may broker a deal between New Delhi and Islamabad over the latter’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.
In 1960, the World Bank had intervened in the India-Pak dispute over sharing of waters from the Indus river system, and helped the two nations work out and sign the treaty.
Post April 22 terriorst attack in Pahalgam that claimed the lives of 26 tourists, the agreement that stood through three India-Pak wars and multiple skirmishes was suspended by India.
The IWT is critical for Pakistan as the 135 million acre feet of water from the Indus, Ravi, and Jhelum – the ‘western’ rivers allotted to Pak – supply nearly 80 per cent of its farms.
India’s suspension of the treaty was slammed as “an act of war” by Pakistan.
On Thursday, however, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri asserted India’s right to put the IWT on hold, pointing out it had been signed decades ago “in a spirit of goodwill and friendship” absent today.
“If you see (closely), the preamble of the treaty itself states that the treaty was concluded in a spirit of goodwill and friendship. Mark those words… It is India’s patience and tolerance that despite 65 years of attacks and provocations, we have been adhering to the treaty,” he said.
“The fact is there have been fundamental changes to the circumstances in which the treaty was concluded,” he said, insisting there is now a need to “reassess the obligations under that treaty”.
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