Right after China defended its China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure projects in the Shaksgam Valley on Tuesday, India’s Army Chief Upendra Dwivedi reiterated that India considers the 1963 agreement made between Pakistan and China illegal, during a media briefing in New Delhi. He said that the county does not support any activity in the region.
"As far as the Shaksgam Valley is concerned, India considers the 1963 agreement between Pakistan and China as illegal. Therefore, we don't approve of any activity in the valley. The MEA has already stated on this. We don't accept the joint statement by China and Pakistan on CPEC 2.0," the Army chief said.
The 1963 Sino-Pakistan agreement
China has used its 1963 agreement with Pakistan to justify its claims over the Shaksgam Valley and build infrastructure in the region. The country is currently building a China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through the region via roads, railways and pipelines.
In the agreement, the two countries signed that the boundary between China’s Sinkiang region and a region part of India, which Pakistan claimed after the war in 1948, would be delimited in a spirit of equality and mutual benefit. The Shaksgam Valley and region in question spans 5,180 kilometres and lies north of the Karakoram range, next to the Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan region, and close to Siachen.
The agreement also says that the China would be able to replace the treaty with a formal boundary treaty only after Pakistan the settles its dispute with India on the same region mentioned in the treaty. The treaty was signed between the countries' foreign ministries in Peking on March 2, 1963.
According to the Indian Ministry of Affairs, the Sino-Pakistan agreement allowed China to secure the region it wanted. However, Pakistan did not gain much except de facto recognition of its Kashmir occupancy.
India has maintained since 1962 that any agreement made by Pakistan with China is a violation, as it has “no sovereignty over the state’, and it was ‘not hers to trade away’.
Just last week, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaisawal said, “Shaksgam Valley is Indian territory. We have never recognised the so-called China-Pakistan 'Boundary Agreement' signed in 1963. We have consistently maintained that the agreement is illegal and invalid."
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning reacted to the comments, saying that the territory was China’s and that its infrastructure activities in the territory are ‘beyond reproach’
The Shaksgam Valley is currently administered by China as part of the Sinkiang or Xinjiang region. India, however, has maintained that the region is part of Jammu and Kashmir since 1947. Pakistan occupied the region during the war in 1947-48 and then ceded it to China.