India Rejects Pak-China Border Commission On Indian Areas, Slams "Theatrics" - NDTV

**India Rejects Pakistan‑China Border Commission on Disputed Areas, Calls It “Theatrics”**

New Delhi on Monday issued a formal repudiation of a joint Pakistan‑China border commission that seeks to delineate the line of “occupied territory” claimed by India in the high‑altitude Shaksgam Valley and surrounding areas of Ladakh. In a statement released by the Ministry of External Affairs, the government said the commission “has no legal basis, is completely unacceptable and amounts to mere theatrics.” The ministry urged Pakistan to “drop the theatrics, cease any attempts to alter the status‑quo and immediately vacate the territories that belong to India.” The statement emphasized that there is “no recognised Pak‑China boundary in the region” and that any such effort contravenes the United Nations‑mandated Line of Control and the Simla Agreement of 1972.

The commission, announced in a joint press conference in Islamabad earlier this week, was presented as a mechanism to address what Pakistan and China describe as “illegal Indian incursions” into the disputed trans‑Karakoram tract. Beijing has administered the 5,180‑square‑kilometre Shaksgam Valley since the 1963 Sino‑Pakistani Boundary Agreement, a pact that India has consistently rejected on the grounds that the area forms part of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, now a Union Territory of Ladakh. India’s reaction comes amid heightened diplomatic activity, including the recent Modi‑Xi summit where both leaders pledged to respect each other’s “sensitivity” on border issues, a pledge that New Delhi says China has ignored by aligning with Pakistan.

Analysts note that the joint commission could be an attempt by Islamabad and Beijing to cement their de‑facto control over the region ahead of any future negotiations on the broader India‑China border dispute, especially after a series of stand‑off incidents along the Line of Actual Control. India, for its part, has reiterated its claim through diplomatic channels and is prepared to raise the matter in multilateral fora, including the United Nations. The rejection underscores the continued complexity of South Asian geopolitics, where overlapping territorial claims and great‑power rivalries intersect with the strategic imperatives of the three nations involved.