Experts and diplomats gathered at a Washington policy dialogue hosted by the Pakistani Embassy have urged both India and Pakistan to keep the Indus Waters Treaty (a 1960 water-sharing agreement governing the Indus river system, one of the world's longest-running bilateral water accords) separate from their broader political and security disputes. Participants rejected India's position that the treaty is in abeyance until regional violence subsides, arguing that its legal status remains intact and that water cooperation has historically been insulated from conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, warned of a "crisis of intent" in how the treaty is being implemented, while PPP Senator Sherry Rehman separately cautioned that India cannot unilaterally suspend or reinterpret an international agreement and that doing so threatens regional stability at a time when climate change is already placing growing pressure on shared water resources.