Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India’s position was “clear and consistent”, arguing that no boundary exists between Pakistan and China because the areas involved form part of the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which New Delhi regards as integral and inalienable parts of India.
“We reject the so-called Joint Commission, which is without any legal basis,” Jaiswal said. He added that Pakistan had “no locus standi” to enter into arrangements concerning territory that India says remains under Pakistan’s illegal and forcible occupation.
The statement followed the inaugural meeting of the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission in Islamabad on Wednesday. Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the mechanism had been operationalised to strengthen cooperation in border management, joint border surveys, trade flows and people-to-people connectivity.
The Islamabad meeting was co-led by Li Ya, deputy director general of the Department of Boundary and Ocean Affairs at China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bilal Mahmood Chaudhary, director general for China at Pakistan’s foreign ministry. Islamabad described the development as a significant milestone in ties with Beijing.
Jaiswal said India had never recognised the China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963 and continued to regard that arrangement as illegal and invalid. The agreement addressed the boundary between China’s Xinjiang region and territory administered by Pakistan in the northern part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
New Delhi’s objection rests on its position that Pakistan could not lawfully negotiate over territory that India claims. India therefore rejects any bilateral mechanism between Islamabad and Beijing that, in its view, treats the disputed area as though Pakistan possessed sovereign authority to settle boundary questions there.
“We resolutely oppose and reject any attempts to alter the status of these occupied territories or legitimise illegal occupation, impinging on India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Jaiswal said. He added that any boundary cooperation involving the territories would be “completely unacceptable” to New Delhi and would have no bearing on India’s sovereignty claims.
The ministry also urged Pakistan to withdraw from areas India says are under illegal and forcible occupation. “Instead of engaging in such theatrics, we call on Pakistan to immediately vacate from areas under its illegal and forcible occupation,” Jaiswal said.
Pakistan and China, however, treat the frontier as an established international boundary and have maintained formal arrangements governing it for decades. Islamabad’s foreign ministry said the new commission was intended to provide an institutional mechanism for practical cooperation, including border surveys, management and cross-border trade.
The dispute over the commission comes at a sensitive point in regional diplomacy, with India maintaining separate boundary negotiations with China while continuing to contest Pakistan’s control of parts of Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi has repeatedly said agreements between Islamabad and Beijing cannot prejudice its territorial claims. Pakistan rejects that position and administers the areas concerned, while China regards the 1963 agreement as a settled basis for managing its frontier with Pakistan and related cross-border arrangements.
The commission traces its administrative framework to a 2013 agreement on the boundary management system signed by Pakistan and China. That agreement provides for a joint commission to oversee implementation of border management arrangements, including maintenance, inspections, boundary markers and the handling of incidents along the frontier.
Wednesday’s exchange underscored the continuing divergence between New Delhi on one side and Islamabad and Beijing on the other over the legal status of territory in the wider Kashmir region. India’s position also intersects with its opposition to infrastructure projects that pass through territory administered by Pakistan but claimed by New Delhi, including parts of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Pakistan administers areas west and north of the Line of Control, while India administers Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on its side of the divide. China controls Aksai Chin, which India claims as part of Ladakh, and also administers the Shaksgam Valley under the 1963 agreement with Pakistan, an arrangement New Delhi does not recognise.
