A photo of the Shaksgam valley. Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
India said on Thursday that it had lodged a strong complaint with China over construction work in the Shaksgam valley, which it described as an “illegal” effort to change the situation on the ground.
Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs, in New Delhi, said that the Shaksgam valley is part of India.
Jaiswal made his comments during his weekly briefing to the media in response to a question about reports that China was building infrastructure in Shaksgam valley, a strategically situated region which is now part of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
“We have protested with the Chinese against illegal attempts to change facts on the ground,” said Jaiswal. He added, “We reserve the right to undertake any necessary measures in order to protect our interests.” Jaiswal also stated that India has taken a “very firm” stand on the Shaksgam valley.
Chinese construction in the area is taking place amid a border dispute between India and China that has lasted for over three-and-a-half years in eastern Ladakh. Indian and Chinese soldiers are at loggerheads at some friction points in eastern Ladakh, even after both sides have completed disengagement from several areas after extensive diplomatic and military discussions.
India maintains that normal relations with China are impossible without peace along the border.
The Shaksgam valley, or the Trans Karakoram Tract, is part of the Hunza-Gilgit Region of PoK.
It is bordered by the Xinjiang Province of the People’s Republic of China to the north. The northern areas of PoK are to its west and south. And the Siachen Glacier region to the east.
In 1963, Pakistan ceded the Shaksgam valley to China when it signed a border agreement with Beijing to settle their border disputes.
The agreement laid the basis for the construction of the Karakoram Highway, which was jointly built by Chinese and Pakistani engineers during the 1970s.
When the British asked the Mir of Hunza, a vassal of the Maharaja of Kashmir, to give up his rights to the Taghdumbash Pamirs and the Raskam valley in 1936, the Shaksgam valley to the south-west had remained in his possession.
This remained the traditional frontier of British India until independence and was inherited by India following Jammu & Kashmir’s accession in 1947. And, this was the border that was compromised by Pakistan in its 1963 agreement with China.
Pakistan established diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China in 1951. Back then, Pakistan was viewed as a member of the non-Soviet block due to its membership in two anti-communist military pacts — SEATO and CENTO — led by the United States. China was on the opposite side.
In ‘Buddha’s Warriors’, author and historian Mikel Dunham wrote that after Chinese troops invaded Tibet in 1950, Pakistan even offered transit facilities to US aircraft so they could supply equipment to Tibetan rebels.
Chinese troops began to cross the border in eastern Hunza after the Partition of India. This started in 1953. In 1959 they took some livestock out of the area. This prompted a furious response from Pakistan, which was determined to protect its borders. The then President of Pakistan, Ayub Khan, however, saw an opportunity to appease the Chinese in the late 1950s as India-China relations were rapidly deteriorating.
Subsequently, Beijing developed closer ties with Islamabad after the India-China War of 1962. China went on to support Pakistan diplomatically during the 1965 India-Pakistan war.
Amid these developments, Pakistan chose to downgrade historical claims made by the Mir of Hunza, and signed over the Shaksgam Valley to China in 1963.
In granting China’s claim to a border along the Karakoram Range, Pakistan compromised India’s traditional frontier along the Kun Lun Range to the north-west of the Karakoram Pass.
(With agency inputs)
First Published: May 03 2024 | 6:32 PM IST
