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On 16 September 2026 India rejected the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission (BJC), whose first meeting was held in Islamabad on 16-17 September. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the commission has no legal basis.
India says there is no Pakistan-China boundary at all, because Indian territory in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh lies between the two countries.
The BJC comes from Article 45 of the 2013 China-Pakistan Agreement on the Boundary Management System. It will handle joint border surveys, boundary markers, the movement of goods and people, and cross-border facilities.
India has never recognised the 2 March 1963 Sino-Pakistan Boundary Agreement, under which Pakistan ceded about 5,180 sq km of the Shaksgam Valley to China.
Pakistan ceded about 5,180 sq km of the Shaksgam Valley (Trans-Karakoram Tract) to China. India calls the agreement illegal and invalid. Its own Article 6 says it is provisional: once the Kashmir dispute is settled, the 'sovereign authority concerned' is to reopen negotiations with China and sign a formal boundary treaty.
Its Article 45 provides for the Boundary Joint Commission that was activated in September 2026.
Parliament unanimously declared that all of Jammu and Kashmir, including areas under Pakistani occupation, is an integral part of India. This underpins India's position that Pakistan has no locus standi.
The Shaksgam Valley (Trans-Karakoram Tract) lies north of the Siachen Glacier, near the Karakoram Pass. India counts it as part of Ladakh. The Karakoram Highway crosses from Gilgit-Baltistan into Xinjiang at the Khunjerab Pass, and CPEC runs along this route to Gwadar port.
Flagship project of China's Belt and Road Initiative, linking Xinjiang (Kashgar) to Gwadar port. India opposes it because it runs through Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The other part of the former state of Jammu and Kashmir held by China. India claims it as part of Ladakh.
At the New Delhi summit the two sides had agreed to keep peace along the LAC. The BJC was activated a few days later.
GS Paper II > India and its neighbourhood; GS Paper III > Security challenges in border areas
General Knowledge > India's borders
Another name for the Shaksgam Valley, about 5,180 sq km ceded by Pakistan to China in 1963
The legal right to act or be heard on a matter; India says Pakistan has none over the territory it occupies
Pakistan-China border-management body under Article 45 of their 2013 agreement; first met on 16-17 September 2026