India rejects references to Jammu and Kashmir, CPEC in China-Pakistan joint statement

MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India expects the 'parties concerned' not to interfere in matters that are internal affairs of India

Three days after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan opposed New Delhi’s “unilateral action” on Jammu and Kashmir, India rejected reference to its “integral and inalienable parts” in the joint statement issued after the meeting between the leaders of the two neighbouring nations.

“We have always rejected such references and our position is well known to China and Pakistan,” Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), said in New Delhi on Wednesday. “In this instance too,” he added, “we reject reference to Jammu and Kashmir in the joint statement”.

He said that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh had been, were and would always remain, “integral and inalienable” parts of India. “We expect the parties concerned (China and Pakistan) not to interfere in matters that are internal affairs of India.”

The joint statement issued after the meeting between Xi and Khan in Beijing on Sunday said that China and Pakistan opposed “unilateral actions” that would complicate the issue of Kashmir. Xi also assured Khan of Beijing’s continued support to Islamabad to implement the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.

The CPEC links China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region and the port city of Gwadar in southern Pakistan. New Delhi has been opposing the CPEC, because it passes through Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) areas, which India claims to be part of its own territory and accuses Pakistan of illegally occupying it.

China and Pakistan had opposed August 5, 2019 move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to strip Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and to reorganise the state into two Union Territories of India.

“We resolutely oppose any attempts to change the status quo by other countries, as also by Pakistan, in the areas under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. We call upon the parties concerned to cease such activities,” Bagchi said.

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