New Delhi rejected a newly operationalised Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission on Wednesday, with the Ministry of External Affairs saying no legal boundary exists between the two countries in territory India claims as its own.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told reporters India’s position remains clear and consistent, and that there is no boundary between Pakistan and China. He said the commission has no legal basis.
The rejection came hours after Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry described the commission’s launch as a milestone in Islamabad-Beijing relations, pointing to plans for joint border surveys, trade facilitation and expanded people-to-people ties.
At the heart of India’s objection is the Shaksgam Valley, a stretch of Ladakh that Pakistan ceded to China under a 1963 border agreement — one New Delhi has never recognised. Jaiswal repeated that India considers the pact illegal and invalid, and said Pakistan has no authority to make arrangements over territory it holds through what India calls illegal occupation.
He added that Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh remain, in India’s view, integral and inseparable parts of the country, and said any Pakistan-China cooperation touching that territory would have no bearing on India’s sovereignty. He called on Pakistan to vacate the occupied areas instead.
Wednesday’s exchange echoes a similar flashpoint in June 2024, when India objected to a joint China-Pakistan statement that referenced Jammu & Kashmir and infrastructure projects under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The MEA response then, also delivered by Jaiswal, was much the same: New Delhi does not accept such references and considers them interference in its internal affairs.
No response from Islamabad or Beijing to India’s latest statement had been reported as of Wednesday evening.
