India says Pakistan-China boundary panel ‘without any legal basis’

Islamabad should ‘immediately vacate the areas under its illegal and forcible occupation’, said New Delhi after the commission was operationalised on Wednesday.

India on Wednesday rejected the “so-called” Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission, saying that it was constituted “without any legal basis”.

The commission was operationalised earlier in the day, with its inaugural meeting in Islamabad. It originates from a 2013 agreement between Pakistan and China to manage their boundary.

After the meeting, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that the meeting had set the stage for “enhanced cooperation in border management, joint border surveys, trade flows and people-to-people connectivity”.

In response to queries about the development, India’s Ministry of External Affairs stated that instead of engaging in “such theatrics”, Pakistan should “immediately vacate the areas under its illegal and forcible occupation”.

It asserted that there was no boundary between Pakistan and China.

“Our position on this matter is clear and consistent,” said the ministry. “We have never recognised the so-called ‘China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement’ of 1963 and have consistently maintained that it is illegal and invalid.”

The agreement was signed on March 2, 1963, to demarcate the border between China’s Xinjiang region and the territory in Gilgit-Baltistan, part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

As part of the agreement, Pakistan had ceded approximately 5,180 sq km of territory known as the Shaksgam Valley to China. New Delhi has consistently rejected the agreement, maintaining that the Shaksgam Valley is Indian territory under illegal occupation.

India has also opposed the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as part of it passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

New Delhi reiterated this on Wednesday, saying that the “Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are and will always remain integral and inalienable parts of India”.

“Pakistan has no locus standi to enter into arrangements concerning Indian territory under its illegal and forcible occupation,” it said.

The ministry added that it “resolutely opposes and rejects” any attempts to “legitimise illegal occupation, impinging on India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

Written by Anamika Pathak. Edited by Sneha.