Pakistan, July 9 -- There are moments in diplomacy when the real success is not in the speech delivered, the resolution passed or the photograph released. It is in the discomfort created on the other side. By that measure, the international seminar on the Indus Waters Treaty held in Islamabad was not a routine policy event. It was a calculated diplomatic strike.

For years, India has tried to treat the Indus Waters Treaty as a bilateral file to be managed behind closed doors, pressured when convenient and politically exploited when needed. After the recent attempt to place the treaty in "abeyance", New Delhi appeared to believe that Pakistan would be forced into a defensive posture. Islamabad, however, has now done something India did not...