Pakistan-China border pact irks India

The commission specifically concerns the Pakistan-China frontier, including the Shaksgam Valley, a roughly 5,180 sq km tract that Pakistan ceded to China in 1963. India asserts that this territory was part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir and was illegally occupied by Pakistan before being ceded to China, thus considering the agreement illegal and invalid.

Experts note that while a joint boundary commission was provided for in the 1963 Sino-Pak Agreement, the timing of its operationalization is significant. This could be linked to China's broader efforts to demarcate its boundaries and institutionalize exchanges amid instability on Pakistan's other borders. The move also serves as a signal to India that Beijing continues to view Kashmir through a Pakistani lens, reinforcing India's fear of a two-front threat.

However, some caution against interpreting the development as a direct military move against India, with no immediate implications for the Line of Actual Control (LAC) currently apparent. The significance may lie more in the gradual institutionalization of arrangements that India has consistently rejected.