‘Resolutely reject attempts to change status quo’: India on Pak-China statement

India on Thursday expressed its concerns about Beijing and Islamabad using the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to alter the status quo in the region and said the connectivity project passes through Indian territory that is under “forcible” occupation.

New Delhi also rejected “unwarranted references” to the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir in a joint statement issued by China and Pakistan on Wednesday at the conclusion of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Beijing. This was Sharif’s first visit to China since he assumed office in April, and also the first since Chinese President Xi Jinping recently secured an unprecedented third term in office.

During Sharif’s visit, China and Pakistan agreed to speed up work on various components of CPEC and to “counter all threats and designs” against the project. They invited third parties to invest in CPEC and agreed to extend the project to Afghanistan, according to the joint statement.

External affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told a weekly news briefing that the China-Pakistan joint statement contained “several unwarranted references to the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir”, and mentions projects under CPEC and the extension of the project to third countries.

India has consistently conveyed its protest and concerns to China and Pakistan over CPEC, he said. “CPEC includes projects on the sovereign territory of India under forcible and illegal external occupation. We resolutely reject any attempts to utilise such projects to change the status quo in this area,” he said.

“Any attempts to involve third parties in such activities are inherently illegal, illegitimate and unacceptable and will be treated as such by us,” he added.

Bagchi said India has consistently rejected such statements and “all parties concerned are well aware of our clear position on these matters”. He said the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh “are and always will be integral and inalienable parts of India” and no country has “locus standi to comment on the same”.

CPEC is a flagship project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and it will complete a decade in 2023. India has consistently opposed CPEC as a key part of its network of highways, railway lines and energy projects passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The China-Pakistan joint statement said the Pakistani side briefed the Chinese side on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. The two countries emphasised the importance of resolving all outstanding disputes and the Chinese side reiterated the “Kashmir issue was a dispute left from history that should be properly and peacefully resolved based on the UN Charter, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements”.

The development comes at a time when India’s relations with China and Pakistan are at an all-time low. There has been no substantial dialogue between New Delhi and Islamabad for more than a decade due to differences on issues such as terrorism, and India and China are locked in a military standoff in the Ladakh sector.

In response to a question, Bagchi said India’s expectations from Pakistan on the issue of terrorism have been reiterated many times. India has also opposed the politicisation of the process of listing terrorists at the UN Security Council, and every listing proposal should be seen in the light of evidence and facts, he said.