WASHINGTON: US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry has warned that climate changes in South Asia could further deteriorate relations between the region’s two nuclear powers, India and Pakistan.

In a speech titled, ‘Climate change and American foreign policy: security challenges, diplomatic opportunities,’ Senator Kerry noted that ‘nowhere is the nexus between today’s threats and climate change more acute than in South Asia --- the home of Al Qaeda and the centre of our terrorist threat.’

He said that scientists were now warning that the Himalayan glaciers, which supply water to almost a billion people from China to Afghanistan, could disappear completely by 2035.

‘Think about what this means: Water from the Himalayas flows through India into Pakistan. India’s rivers are not only vital to its agriculture, but absolutely central to its religious practice,’ the senator said.

‘Pakistan, for its part, is heavily dependent on irrigated farming to avoid famine.’

At a moment when the American government was scrambling to ratchet down tensions and preparing to invest billions to strengthen Pakistan’s capacity to deliver for its people, ‘it’s infuriating to think that climate change could work so powerfully in the opposite direction’.