India’s foreign ministry thinks that the Pakistan-China bus route ‘will violate India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’

• India has registered an objection against the yet to be launched bus service between Pakistan and China.
  
  
• India’s concern over the route is because it passes through Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir raising questions of security in lieu of its strained relations with both nations.
  
  
• The Ministry of External Affairs has raised questions over the legality of ‘Boundary Agreement’ of 1963, which India never acknowledged.
  
  
• Both China and Pakistan are hoping to boost their ‘friendship’ with the bus service.
  

Raising security concerns over the deepening ‘friendship’ China and Pakistan has forced India to protest against the proposed bus service. The point of contention being that the route of the bus passes through Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir connecting Lahore in Pakistan to Kashgar in China.

The transportation service -- which is all set to start from 3rd November under the flagship ‘China-Pakistan Economic Corridor’ (CPEC) is suppose to strengthen Sino-Pakistan relation in turn spreading fears of national security in India.

The Ministry of External Affairs has raised questions on the validity and legality of ‘China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement’. They’re stating that no notification was sent their way to inform them about any such bus service by either of the two neighbouring countries.

As per the ministry, any bus service connecting Pakistan and China through Azad Kashmir (Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir) ‘will violate India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity’.

Apparently, Pakistan and China do not share an international boundary. On paper, the Boundary Agreement is a document from 1963 which established a ‘so-called’ boundary relations between China and Pakistan. But since India also claims territorial rights on parts of the region, it refuses to acknowledge any such agreement between the two.

India earlier refused to be a part of ‘One Belt One Road’ (OBOR) project owing to the strained relation it has with China and Pakistan.

Apart from all the tensions India has with the route of bus-service, Pakistan’s engagement with China on the CPEC project has faced more controversy in light Imran Khan taking the helm in Pakistan. As of now, the project has only widened trade deficit and debts in the country since China did not avail any industrial technology to support Pakistan with the project.