India on Wednesday lodged strong protests with Pakistan and China over a bus service scheduled to be launched soon between Lahore and Kashghar, a city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China’s far west, through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project.
Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Wednesday the bus service will be a violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“We have lodged strong protests with China and Pakistan on the proposed bus service that will operate through Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir under the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” Kumar said in response to queries from the media.
“It is government of India’s consistent and well-known position that the so-called China-Pakistan ‘boundary agreement’ of 1963 is illegal and invalid, and has never been recognised by the Government of India. Therefore, any such bus service through Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir will be a violation of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Kumar added.
According to reports, the new bus service will be launched between Lahore in Pakistan and Kashgar in China via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on November 13.
The MEA spokesperson was responding to media queries regarding the proposed bus service.
The USD 50-billion CPEC, launched in 2015, is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China’s resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan’s strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.
(With agency inputs)