India has strongly criticised the China-Pakistan Joint Statement on Jammu and Kashmir.
New Delhi:
India has strongly criticised the China-Pakistan joint statement on Jammu and Kashmir, calling it an “inalienable reference”, saying the union territory, including Ladakh, is an “integral and inalienable” part of India.
India’s reaction came after Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif met Chinese President Xi Jinping in China from June 4-8 during which the two countries also discussed the so-called China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which passes through Indian territory in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
“We have noticed that the June 7 joint statement between China and Pakistan made an unwarranted reference to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. We categorically reject such references. Our position on this issue has been consistent and is well known to the parties involved,” foreign ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
“The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh have been and will remain an integral and indivisible part of India. No other country has any right to comment on the same,” he said.
Regarding the so-called CPEC, which India has not approved, Jaiswal said, “The same joint statement also mentions activities and projects under the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, some of which are located within Indian territory which is under forcible and illegal occupation by Pakistan. We firmly oppose and reject attempts by other countries to strengthen or justify Pakistan’s illegal occupation of these territories which violates India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
India has said on multiple occasions that the 3,000-km, $50 billion corridor linking Kashgar in western China with Pakistan’s Gwadar port would pass through Indian territory.
According to the China-Pakistan joint statement, the Pakistani side briefed the Chinese side on the latest developments in the Jammu and Kashmir situation, and the Chinese side reiterated that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is a relic of history and should be resolved properly and peacefully in accordance with the UN Charter, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and bilateral agreements.
Pakistan’s extreme economic crisis is partly attributed to what experts call the “Chinese debt trap,” which has also affected Sri Lanka. Geopolitical experts say China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Sri Lanka was responsible for the collapse of the Sri Lankan government in June 2022 in the face of street protests due to severe shortages of essential goods.
“In Pakistan, the much larger China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has become an iconic symbol of colonialism, infamously dubbed the ‘Chinese East India Company’…” Fabien Basar of the Centre for Political and Foreign Relations, a prominent think tank, wrote in April 2022.
While China’s benevolence seems poised to lift its people out of poverty, it’s actually plunging them into mountains of debt that they can’t even afford to repay, let alone repay. More than 40 countries are feeling the effects, including Laos, Zambia and Kyrgyzstan. Most are developing countries, but some, such as Malaysia, are acting as intermediaries, Baussert said.
