New Delhi: China is building a road in Shaksgam Valley, a part of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) ceded to Beijing in 1963, that can connect Muzaffarabad through the Mustagh Pass to Yarkahnd in Xinjiang.
India on Thursday said that it had registered a protest with China over this road construction.
“Shaksgam Valley is a part of the territory of India. We have never accepted the so-called China Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963 through which Pakistan unlawfully attempted to cede the area to China, and have consistently conveyed our rejection of the same,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told the media.
“We have registered our protest with the Chinese side against illegal attempts to alter facts on the ground. We further reserve the right to take necessary measures to safeguard our interests”.
New Delhi has in the past, too, objected to Chinese construction activity in the Shaksgam Valley, the pace of which gathered steam after the 2017 stand-off in Bhutan’s Doklam.
The new road is said to be less than 49 km from Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest battlefield.
The information regarding this new road was put out first by a satellite imagery watcher on X, formerly Twitter, who goes by the handle @natureDesai.
Thread:
In a significant development, 🇨🇳 road has breached the border at Aghil Pass (4805 m) and entered the lower Shaksgam valley of Kashmir, 🇮🇳 with the road-head now less than 30 miles from 🇮🇳 Siachen
This permanently answers the question of Shaksgam for 🇮🇳
1/4 pic.twitter.com/TyjMcUqz2S
— Nature Desai (@NatureDesai) April 21, 2024
Sources in the defence establishment told ThePrint that while this new road is unlikely to cause much impact to India’s positions on the Siachen Glacier, it should be seen in the context of greater ties between Pakistan and China.
In 2021, the South China Morning Post had reported that Pakistan was looking to develop new overland border crossings with China that would potentially boost their military interoperability against Indian forces in Ladakh and the rest of Kashmir.
It had said that the route of a proposed new border road from Yarkand — on Gilgit Baltistan’s border with the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region — suggests strong strategic motivations because it would open a new supply line from China to Pakistani forces deployed along the Line of Control.
There were also inputs to suggest that the roads in Shaksgam Valley could be for transporting minerals like Uranium mined from Gilgit Baltistan to Xinjiang.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: Hardened shelters, radars, defence systems & more — IAF quietly upgrades bases focused on China