Pakistan and China have put into operation a joint boundary commission for their Himalayan frontier, drawing a sharp reaction from India over land it claims.

The first session of the Pakistan-China Boundary Joint Commission was held in Islamabad on 16-17 September. Pakistan termed the move a leap forward in cooperation on border management, joint surveys, trade, and movement of people. The mechanism was planned under a China-Pakistan agreement on a boundary management system signed in 2013.

India rejected the commission, saying it has no legal standing in the case of territory that New Delhi considers part of India.

“There is no border between Pakistan and China. “We reject the so-called Joint Commission, which has no legal basis,” said Randhir Jaiswal, spokesman for the Indian foreign ministry.

The dispute dates back to the 1963 China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement. Under that pact, Pakistan and China demarcated a boundary in an area that India claims as part of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. India has never accepted the agreement and considers it illegal and invalid.

The Shaksgam Valley conflict

One bone of contention is the Shaksgam Valley, also known as the Trans-Karakoram Tract. It extends over some 5,180 sq km of territory north of the Pakistan-administered area and west of China’s Xinjiang region.

Pakistan handed over the territory to China under the 1963 agreement. India contests Pakistan’s right to have made that arrangement, arguing that the territory is Indian.

The 1963 agreement itself provided for a future review. Article 6 provided for the “sovereign authority concerned” to negotiate with China and to replace the existing arrangement with a formal boundary treaty after a settlement of the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.

India’s objection is therefore more than the creation of a technical border-management mechanism. India says Pakistan cannot make any agreements with any other country involving land that India claims as its own. Pakistan, meanwhile, insists that Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory and the 1963 agreement is valid.

Why timing is important

The commission's activation comes as India and China are seeking to stabilize relations after years of military tensions along their disputed Himalayan frontier.

The Line of Actual Control, or LAC, marks the separation between Indian and Chinese troops along much of the Himalayan border. Ties worsened sharply following a deadly clash in eastern Ladakh in 2020, but steps have since been taken by both sides to de-escalate tensions.

In that context, the operationalization of a China-Pakistan boundary mechanism has added another layer to India’s concerns vis-à-vis its two major neighbors.

"The commission is not a new arrangement but a revival of a mechanism provided for under the earlier China-Pakistan agreements," said Jabin T. Jacob, a professor at Shiv Nadar University in Delhi.

“This timing could be part of China’s broader efforts to manage and demarcate borders and to institutionalize movement and exchanges along the frontier,” he said.

Jacob also referred to Article 6 of the 1963 agreement that provides for renegotiation after a settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

Border management and CPEC

There are also practical functions of the commission.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said the first meeting held on March 15 had discussed cross-border coordination, movement of goods and people, joint border surveys, and people-to-people links. Officials from the foreign affairs, defense, interior, commerce, communications, customs, and surveying agencies attended the meeting.

The frontier already carries strategic importance because of infrastructure connecting Pakistan and China, including the Karakoram Highway and projects linked to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC.

The commission had practical and political dimensions, said Husain Haqqani, a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States and a senior fellow at the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy and the Hudson Institute.

It could help in border cooperation, prevent unauthorized crossings, and help protect infrastructure related to CPEC, he added.

Haqqani said the arrangement also sends a message to India about China’s continuing position on Kashmir.

A dispute with wider implications

The dispute is not so much about the administration of a remote mountain frontier as about the administration of the state. It reflects three overlapping claims of territory between India, Pakistan, and China.

India disputes Pakistan’s control of parts of Jammu and Kashmir and rejects a 1963 China-Pakistan boundary agreement. Pakistan says the Kashmir conflict remains unresolved. China has its own long-standing territorial dispute with India.

The commission does not seem to alter any of the three countries’ basic territorial claims so far. Rather, it is important for further institutionalizing China-Pakistan cooperation along a frontier that India considers disputed.

At the first meeting, Pakistan and China agreed to hold the next session of the commission in China on a mutually convenient date.