Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday reiterated India’s long-held position that the 1963 agreement between Pakistan and China over the Shaksgam Valley is illegal and not acceptable to New Delhi.
Speaking on the issue, Gen Dwivedi said India has never recognised the so-called agreement under which Pakistan ceded territory to China. “On the Shaksgam Valley, India considers the 1963 agreement between Pakistan and China illegal. We do not accept it,” he said, underlining the country’s consistent stand.
His remarks come amid renewed Indian criticism of China’s infrastructure activities in the Shaksgam Valley, an area New Delhi maintains is Indian territory under illegal occupation.
Earlier, the Ministry of External Affairs said Pakistan had illegally handed over about 5,180 square kilometres of Indian territory in the Shaksgam Valley to China in 1963. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said India has “never recognised the so-called China-Pakistan boundary agreement” and has maintained that it is illegal and invalid.
Jaiswal also reiterated that India does not recognise the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which passes through Indian territory under Pakistan’s illegal occupation. He said the entire Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral and inalienable part of India, a position that has been conveyed repeatedly to both Islamabad and Beijing.
India’s concerns have sharpened amid reports of large-scale Chinese infrastructure work in the Shaksgam Valley under CPEC. According to reports, China is building an all-weather road in the region, with nearly 75 km—around 10 metres wide—already completed. New Delhi has cautioned that such projects risk altering the ground situation in an area it considers its sovereign territory.
Responding to these developments, the MEA asserted that the region forms part of India and said New Delhi reserves the right to take “necessary measures” to protect its interests. China, however, has rejected India’s objections, maintaining that its construction activities are legitimate.
The issue has also highlighted what India sees as China’s contradictory stance on Kashmir—publicly describing it as a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan, while simultaneously undertaking strategic projects in areas of Kashmir under Pakistan’s illegal occupation.
Why the Shaksgam Valley matters
Located near the Siachen Glacier in the eastern Karakoram range, the Shaksgam Valley—also known as the Trans-Karakoram Tract—borders China’s Xinjiang region to the north and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to the south and west. Its proximity to the Siachen Glacier, the world’s highest battlefield, and access to the Karakoram Pass give it considerable strategic importance.
From Siachen, India maintains surveillance over Pakistan, while the Karakoram Pass allows monitoring of Chinese movements. Control or influence over the Shaksgam Valley therefore has direct implications for India’s military posture along both the Line of Control with Pakistan and the Line of Actual Control with China.
How Pakistan ceded the territory
The Shaksgam Valley, part of the Hunza-Gilgit region, came under Chinese control following the 1963 boundary agreement between Pakistan and China. India formally objected to the deal but was unable to exercise physical control over the valley due to Pakistan’s occupation of the surrounding areas.
Following the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India in October 1947, the Shaksgam Valley legally became part of Indian territory. In the 1950s, Chinese incursions into eastern Hunza strained India-China relations. Pakistan, under then President Ayub Khan, later moved closer to Beijing and formally ceded the Shaksgam Valley and areas along the Yarkand River to China in 1963, disregarding India’s objections.
Since the Doklam standoff, China has stepped up military and infrastructure activity in the region, turning a territory India considers its own into a growing strategic concern for New Delhi.