Why a new Pakistan-China border pact has irked India
🚨 Operationalising the Boundary Joint Commission
For decades, India has refused to recognise a Pakistan-China boundary in territory it claims as its own. Last week, Pakistan and China moved to institutionalise one, prompting a sharp response from Delhi. The two countries operationalised the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission, which Pakistan described as a "significant milestone" that would deepen cooperation on border management, joint surveys, trade and people-to-people connectivity.
India reacted sharply, rejecting the move as having no legal basis, saying it did not recognise any Pakistan-China boundary involving territory it claims as Indian. The announcement comes at a particularly sensitive moment as India and China seek to stabilise their relationship after years of military tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).
🗺️ The Shaksgam Valley & Legal Stance
"There is no boundary between Pakistan and China. We reject the so-called Joint Commission, which is without any legal basis," Indian foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said. The commission concerns the Pakistan-China frontier, including the Shaksgam Valley, a roughly 5,180 sq km tract that Pakistan ceded to China in 1963 but which India claims as part of its territory in Ladakh.
India says the territory was part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and was illegally occupied by Pakistan before being ceded to China. Pakistan says Jammu and Kashmir remains a disputed territory, and argues that India therefore has no standing to challenge its 1963 boundary agreement with China.
🔍 Expert Analysis & CPEC Integration
Jabin T Jacob, professor at Delhi's Shiv Nadar University, said the new development represented the revival of an old mechanism rather than an entirely new arrangement. "A joint boundary commission is provided for in the 1963 Sino-Pak Agreement, the only issue at hand is the timing of its operationalisation," he told the BBC. He noted that Article 6 of the agreement provided for its renegotiation once the Kashmir dispute was settled.
Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to the US, said the new commission was both practical and political, designed to enhance border cooperation and protect strategic infrastructure tied to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). He added that China continues to view Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan through the Pakistani prism.
🌐 A Signal to New Delhi
According to experts, the release of this information was timed for after President Xi Jinping's recent BRICS summit trip to send Pakistan a message of reassurance in the strategic partnership, and India a reminder that multilateral engagement does not translate into any change in China's vision for South Asia.
While Jacob cautioned against interpreting every aspect as a direct military move against the LAC, Haqqani noted that the dispute goes beyond cartography. Pakistan remains "China's secondary deterrent against India"—and Beijing's engagement with Islamabad continues to send that message to Delhi.
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