Why Has a New Pakistan-China Border Move Angered India?
News Desk
Islamabad: A new Pakistan-China mechanism for managing their shared frontier has brought a decades-old territorial dispute with India back into focus, with New Delhi rejecting the arrangement and questioning its legal basis.
Pakistan and China formally operationalised the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission during its inaugural meeting in Islamabad on September 16–17.
According to Pakistan’s Foreign Office, the commission will provide a framework for cooperation on border management, joint surveys, trade flows and people-to-people connectivity.
For Islamabad and Beijing, the commission builds on an existing bilateral framework for managing their border. For New Delhi, however, the development is directly linked to its longstanding territorial claims over Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Why is India objecting?
At the heart of the dispute is the Shaksgam Valley, a mountainous area of about 5,180 square kilometres.
Pakistan and China signed a boundary agreement in 1963, under which Pakistan transferred control of the territory to China. India has never recognised that agreement and maintains that the territory forms part of what it claims as Indian territory.
New Delhi argues that Pakistan cannot enter into arrangements with another country concerning territory that India claims.
Following the first meeting of the joint commission, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reiterated New Delhi’s longstanding position.
“There is no boundary between Pakistan and China. We reject the so-called Joint Commission, which is without any legal basis.”
India has also maintained that it never recognised the 1963 China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement and considers it illegal and invalid.
Pakistan’s position
Pakistan, meanwhile, regards Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory and considers its 1963 boundary agreement with China valid.
From Islamabad’s perspective, the new commission is intended to manage an existing frontier and strengthen practical cooperation with Beijing rather than alter the broader territorial positions of the parties.
The commission itself is also not entirely new in concept.
According to Pakistan’s Foreign Office, the mechanism was envisaged under the 2013 China-Pakistan Agreement on the Boundary Management System. Its formal launch is therefore being presented by Pakistan as the institutionalisation of an existing framework for managing border-related matters.
Why does timing matter?
The timing of the development adds another layer to the dispute.
India and China have been working to stabilise relations after years of military tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the disputed frontier separating their forces across much of the Himalayan region.
At the same time, Pakistan and China continue to deepen cooperation along a neighbouring section of the frontier, including through border management and connectivity initiatives.
That makes the latest development significant beyond the technical administration of a border.
For Pakistan and China, the commission provides an institutional channel for dealing with practical frontier issues and facilitating cross-border movement and trade.
For India, however, any bilateral mechanism involving territory it claims raises questions of sovereignty and territorial status. New Delhi has similarly opposed China-Pakistan connectivity projects in the wider region, including the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), because parts of the project pass through territory India claims.
A dispute rooted in history
The disagreement over the Pakistan-China frontier cannot be separated from the wider Kashmir dispute.
The 1963 China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement was concluded in the context of the unresolved territorial dispute over Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan and China subsequently developed their bilateral boundary arrangements, while India continued to reject the agreement.
More than six decades later, that disagreement remains unresolved.
The new boundary commission therefore does not create an entirely new territorial dispute. Instead, it has brought an old disagreement back into the spotlight at a time when relations among Pakistan, China and India are evolving.
For now, Pakistan and China are moving ahead with institutionalised border cooperation, while India continues to reject the legal basis of arrangements concerning territory it claims.
The episode illustrates the complexity of Himalayan geopolitics, where territorial claims, historical agreements, sovereignty, security and regional connectivity intersect.
