Army chief reiterates India's stance on Shaksgam Valley, says 1963 Pak-China pact 'illegal'

• India calls the 1963 China-Pakistan agreement on Shaksgam Valley illegal
• Army chief says India does not approve any activity in Shaksgam Valley
• India rejects China-Pakistan joint statement on CPEC 2.0 in the region

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Army chief Upendra Dwivedi on Tuesday reiterated India's stand on Shaksgam Valley, saying that it considers the 1963 agreement between Pakistan and China "illegal".

Dwivedi, who was addressing an annual media briefing in New Delhi, said that India does not support any activity in the region.

"As far as the Shaksgam Valley is concerned, India considers 1963 agreement between Pakistan and China as illegal. Therefore, we don't approve any activity in the valley. The MEA has already issued a statement on this ... we don't accept the joint statement by China and Pakistan on CPEC 2.0," the Army chief said.

The remarks after China defended its ongoing infrastructure projects in the area, describing them as “beyond reproach". In a statement, the Chinese foreign ministry said that the valley "belongs to China" and "there is nothing wrong with China carrying out infrastructure construction on its own territory." It cited a "boundary agreement" in 1963 that demarcated borders between China and Pakistan.

Earlier, India had raised strong objection following an announcement by Pakistan and China to launch the second version of CPEC.

"Shaksgam Valley is Indian territory. We have never recognised the so-called China-Pakistan 'Boundary Agreement' signed in 1963. We have consistently maintained that the agreement is illegal and invalid," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said last week.

Shaksgam Valley is a remote, high-altitude valley that lies north of the Karakoram range. It lies next to Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan region and close to Siachen/Aksai Chin.

It is currently administered by China as part of Xinjiang. However, India has said it is part of the former princely state of Jammu & Kashmir (now Ladakh) since the lawful accession of the region to India in 1947. Pakistan occupied the region during the war in 1947–1948 and subsequently ceded it to China in 1963 through the Sino-Pakistan Agreement.