New Delhi: India has rejected the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission after the two countries operationalised the mechanism for managing their shared border, including areas that New Delhi claims as Indian territory.
The commission held its inaugural meeting in Islamabad in September. Pakistan and China say it will help coordinate border management, joint surveys, trade flows and people-to-people connectivity. India has a different position on the territory included in the agreement. We reject the so-called Joint Commission, which is without any legal basis. India has never recognised the agreement. The MEA has described it, on different ocassions, as illegal and invalid, arguing that the territory was part of Jammu and Kashmir. New Delhi has maintained this position for decades. That clause has been cited by scholars when examining the legal and diplomatic history of the agreement. The commission is meant to provide a regular mechanism for Pakistan and China to deal with practical matters along their border. The first meeting dealt with areas such as border management and surveys. The two countries have also been increasing trade and connectivity through the Khunjerab Pass, which connects Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan region with China’s Xinjiang region.
India’s position is that Pakistan is not the sovereign authority over the territory and therefore has no right to transfer it to China. Because new Delhi sees the underlying Pakistan-China boundary pact as involving territory that belongs to India, the new commission has therefore become sensitive. The mechanism is based on the 2013 Agreement on the Boundary Management System. The dispute goes back to the 1963 China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement. Under that deal, Pakistan transferred about 5,180 square kilometres of territory in the Shaksgam Valley to China. The 1963 agreement described the boundary as provisional. Pakistan and China agreed earlier in 2026 to make greater use of the crossing for land connectivity and cooperation under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “There is no boundary between Pakistan and China. New Delhi has also said Pakistan has no legal authority to enter into agreements with another country over Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, which are India’s territories. It includes a provision that says the boundary could be reviewed after the Kashmir dispute is settled with the country that eventually controls the territory.
The move also fits into the expansion of China-Pakistan economic and infrastructure cooperation. The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor has built transport and other links through Pakistan-administered areas of Jammu and Kashmir, an issue India has opposed. Pakistan can use the commission as an institutional channel for handling its border relationship with China. Beijing can use it as a formal mechanism for managing practical issues along a border that is important for trade and connectivity. The timing has added another layer to the issue. India and China have spent the past two years working to reduce military tensions along their disputed Himalayan border. The commission does not itself change the India-China Line of Actual Control (LAC). The mechanism deals with the Pakistan-China border and practical management of that frontier. Analysts have also cautioned against treating its creation as an immediate military development involving India. Its political importance comes from the fact that Pakistan and China are giving a formal institutional structure to their border relationship in territory that India continues to claim. The development also fits into the China-Pakistan relationship. Beijing has invested heavily in Pakistan through CPEC, while Islamabad depends on China for infrastructure, trade and defence cooperation. The Khunjerab route has become an important land connection between the two countries, with both sides seeking greater trade through the crossing. The commission gives the two countries a dedicated channel for issues such as border surveys, movement of people and trade. It can also support the practical management of infrastructure and transport routes in the region. India’s objection is about sovereignty. New Delhi has repeatedly objected to Chinese projects and agreements involving areas it considers part of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. The latest commission has brought that long-standing disagreement back into the diplomatic exchange. India’s position has not changed. Pakistan and China continue to operate on the basis of their own agreements and describe their border relationship as a bilateral matter. The immediate function of the new commission is border management, surveys, trade and connectivity. Its diplomatic importance comes from the fact that those activities are being institutionalised in a region where India, Pakistan and China have competing territorial claims.
The latest Pakistan-China agreement has therefore come during a period in which New Delhi and Beijing are trying to stabilise their relationship. The two sides reached a disengagement deal in October 2024 after the prolonged military standoff that followed the 2020 Galwan Valley clash. New Delhi does not recognise the 1963 China-Pakistan boundary agreement.
They held another round of high-level boundary talks in Beijing in August 2026 and agreed to continue talks for a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement”. In a 2024 statement, Jaiswal said India rejected references to Jammu and Kashmir in a China-Pakistan joint statement and opposed projects in India’s territory under Pakistan’s “forcible and illegal occupation”.
The MEA has used the same position in earlier disputes over the CPEC.
