Addressing the General Debate, Mr. Sharif said the shared waters of the Indus River system were the “lifeblood not only for the people of Pakistan, but for the entire region”, and that India’s unilateral decision to hold the existing treaty in abeyance had “no legal basis whatsoever”.

He said India’s claims had been rejected by UN experts and the Court of Arbitration.

“Water must never be weaponized. Rivers should nourish nations, not divide them,” he stated.

‘Voice for diplomacy’

On the conflict that has roiled the Gulf in February, Mr. Sharif said Pakistan had brought Washington and Tehran together in Islamabad.

With hostilities recently surging again, he said, “amid the roar of missiles, drones and guns, the voice for diplomacy must echo even louder and stronger.” The Strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb Red Sea bottleneck “must remain open”, he added.

He condemned the recent Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia, including the attempted drone attack on Mecca.

Kashmir and Gaza

Mr. Sharif said Pakistan had exercised its right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter when it faced “external aggression from India” a year ago, crediting US President Donald Trump’s intervention with averting all-out war between the “two nuclear armed neighbours”.

Ensuring South Asia never again reaches “that precipice”, he said, requires a just solution to the Kashmir dispute, adding that Kashmiris had waited eight decades for a UN plebiscite.

“Generations have endured illegal occupation, arbitrary detention, extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, sexual violence and collective punishment,” he said.

On Islamophobia, he said, “RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] driven Hindutva ideology is fanning religious hatred, leading to lynching, communal violence, attacks on places of worship and restrictions upon religious freedom.”

On Gaza, he recalled eight-year-old Wafa Akilah, killed on what should have been her first day of school.

“Does not a child born in Gaza deserve the same life and the same future and same dream as a child, anywhere else in the world?” he asked, adding that in the West Bank “the forcible eviction of Palestinians clearly reflects Israel’s genocidal agenda, which continues unabated”.

Mr. Sharif said terrorist groups were operating from sanctuaries in Afghanistan to destabilize Pakistan and called on Afghan authorities to take “verifiable, decisive action”.

‘Peace is also a far better choice’

Echoing the 81^st Session’s theme of trust restoration, the Pakistani Premier maintained that trust would be restored when “guns are silenced and replaced by handshakes, embraces and smiles.”

“We have chosen dialogue over confrontation. We have chosen cooperation over coercion. We have chosen peace over war,” he said.