China Asserts Claim Over Shaksgam Valley, India Rejects Move as Illegal
Beijing/New Delhi, January 13 (ANI):
China on Monday laid claim to the Shaksgam Valley in Jammu and Kashmir, asserting that the territory belongs to Beijing and that infrastructure construction there is justified. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning dismissed India’s objections, stating that China and Pakistan had signed a boundary agreement in the 1960s and demarcated their borders as an exercise of sovereign rights.
Responding to questions on border issues and the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Mao said the corridor is an economic cooperation project aimed at promoting development and improving livelihoods. She added that the boundary agreement and the CPEC do not affect China’s position on the Kashmir issue, which, she said, remains unchanged.
The Shaksgam Valley borders China’s Xinjiang region to the north, Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir to the south and west, and the Siachen Glacier region to the east.
India has firmly rejected China’s claims and infrastructure activity in the region. On January 9, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) termed the construction through the CPEC in the Shaksgam Valley as “illegal and invalid,” reiterating that the area is an “integral and inalienable part” of India.
MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India has never recognised the 1963 China–Pakistan boundary agreement or the CPEC, both of which pass through territory under what India describes as Pakistan’s forcible and illegal occupation. He reaffirmed that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral parts of India and said New Delhi has consistently protested China’s attempts to alter the status quo in the region.
India, he added, reserves the right to take necessary measures to safeguard its interests.
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