Pakistan, June 12 -- Water is life. This is not a metaphor. For 250 million Pakistanis, the rivers that flow from the mountains of the north are not a convenience or a luxury. They are the foundation of everything, such as food, farming, survival itself. When India's water minister stands before cameras and declares that not a single drop of water will reach Pakistan in the coming years, he is not making a political statement. He is issuing a threat against the lives of an entire nation. The Foreign Office was right to respond with clarity and firmness. Blocking water that flows across international borders is not simply a bilateral dispute between two neighbours.

It violates international law, it violates the spirit of transboundary riv...