In the ongoing debate over the Indus Waters Treaty, India is frequently described as the upper riparian state. Factually, however, that is not correct. India is not an upper riparian state. If any country in this region truly deserves that description, it is China. Once this misconception is cleared up, the entire debate takes on a different dimension.

Before proceeding, it is important to understand what an upper riparian state actually means. In international law, a riparian state is any country through which an international river flows. If a river originates in a country, that country is the upper riparian. If it flows through a country in the middle of its course, that country is a middle riparian. If the river ultimately passes through a country before emptying into the sea, that country is the lower riparian. This, however, is merely a geographical classification. It has nothing to do with ownership of water. Being an upper riparian does not grant a country absolute control over downstream states. Nor does it deprive downstream countries of their rightful share of the river, leaving them dependent on the goodwill of the upstream state.

This misunderstanding probably arose because water disputes in South Asia have long been viewed through the prism of the Indus Waters Treaty. Since the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Beas and Sutlej enter Pakistan after flowing through India, a general impression took hold that India is upstream while Pakistan is downstream. Consequently, India came to be widely regarded as the upper riparian and Pakistan as the lower riparian, and much of the debate has revolved around this assumption.

The story, however, does not begin with India and Pakistan. It begins in Tibet, in its snow-covered mountains, often described as Asia’s Water Tower. After the polar regions, Tibet contains the largest reserve of frozen freshwater on Earth. Dozens of the continent’s major rivers, sustaining nearly two billion people, originate from this vast plateau. Numerous reports by the United Nations, the World Bank and international water experts identify Tibet as Asia’s most important water reservoir.

Anyone seeking to weaponise water in South Asia must reckon with China’s Tibet factor. Ignoring this reality could ultimately expose the weakness of their entire strategy.

Take the Indus River, often described as Pakistan’s lifeline. Its source is not Ladakh, as is commonly believed, but Tibet. The river rises near Mount Kailash, flows first through Chinese-administered Tibet, then enters Ladakh, continues through Gilgit-Baltistan and Pakistan’s plains before emptying into the Arabian Sea. Even if we consider only the Indus, the sequence is unmistakable: the river originates in China, passes through India, and then flows into Pakistan. This single geographical fact dismantles the narrative that casually and exclusively labels India as the upper riparian state.

The same pattern can be seen in the Sutlej. It originates near Lake Rakshastal in Tibet, crosses the Himalayas into India, and eventually enters Pakistan. Here........

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